
I 



THE 3B(0)WIL3Em. 




THE 



CRICKET FIELD: 



THE HISTORY AND THE SCIENCE 



OF THE 



GAME OF CRICKET. 

BY 

THE AUTHOR OF "THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC BATTING," 
"RECOLLECTIONS OF COLLEGE DAYS," 
ETC. ETC. 

o 9 (ft 

v v 7 



" Gaudet .... aprici gramine campi." 

" Pila velox, 

Molliter austerum studio fallente laborem." — Hor. 

*S 



fa 



SECOND EDITION. 



LONDON: 
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 

1854. 



7P96" 



" 'T was in the prime of summer time, 

An evening calm and cool, 
And five and twenty happy boys 

Came bounding out of school. 
Away they sped with gamesome minds 

And souls untouched with sin ; 
To a level mead they came, and there 

They drove the wickets in." 

Hood. 



London : 



A. and G. A. Spottiswoode, 
New.street-Square. 



DEDICATED 

TO 

J. A. B. MARSHALL, ESQ., 

AND THE 

MEMBERS OF THE LANSDOWN CRICKET CLUB, 

BY ONE OF THEIR OLDEST MEMBERS 
AND SINCERE FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOK. 



> 



THE 



PREFACE 

TO 

SECOND EDITION. 



This Edition is greatly improved by various 
additions and corrections, for which we gratefully 
acknowledge our obligations to the Rev. R. T. 
King and Mr. A. Haygarth, as also once more 
to Mr. A. Bass and Mr. Whateley of Burton. 
For our practical instructions on Bowling, Batting, 
and Fielding, the first players of the day have 
been consulted, each on the point in which he 
respectively excelled. More discoveries have also 
been made illustrative of the origin and early 
history of Cricket ; and we trust nothing is want- 
ing to maintain the high character now accorded 
to the et Cricket Field," as the Standard Autho- 
rity on every part of our National Game. 

J. P. 

May, 18. 1854. 

a 3 



THE 



PREFACE 

TO 

FIBST EDITION. 



The following pages are devoted to the history 
and the science of our National Game. Isaac 
Walton has added a charm to the Rod and Line ; 
Col. Hawker to the Dog and the Gun; and 
Nimrod and Harry Hieover to the " Hunting 
Field : " but, the " Cricket Field " is to this day 
untrodden ground. We have been long expecting 
to hear of some chronicler aided and abetted by 
the noblemen and gentlemen of the Marylebone 
Club, — one who should combine, with all the 
resources of a ready writer, traditionary lore and 
practical experience. But, time is fast thinning 
the ranks of the veterans. Lord Frederick Beau- 
clerk and the once celebrated player, the Hon. 
Henry Tufton, afterwards Earl of Thanet, have 
passed away ; and probably Sparkes, of the Edin- 
burgh Ground, and Mr. John Goldham, herein- 



Vlii PREFACE TO 

after mentioned, are the only surviving players 
who have witnessed both the formation and the 
jubilee of the Marylebone Club — following, as it 
has, the fortunes of the Pavilion and of the enter- 
prising Thomas Lord, literally through "three 
removes" and "one fire," from White Conduit 
Fields to the present Lord's. 

How, then, it will be asked, do we presume to 
save from oblivion the records of Cricket ? 

As regards the Antiquities of the game, our 
history is the result of patient researches in old 
English literature. As regards its changes and 
chances and the players of olden time, it fortu- 
nately happens that, some fifteen years ago, we 
furnished ourselves with old Nyren's account of 
the Cricketers of his time and the Hambledon 
Club, and, using Bentley's Book of Matches from 
1786 to 1825 to suggest questions and test the 
truth of answers, we passed many an interesting 
hour in Hampshire and Surrey, by the peat fires 
of those villages which reared the Walkers, David 
Harris, Beldham, Wells, and some others of the 
All England players of fifty years since. Bennett, 
Harry Hampton, Beldham, and Sparkes^ who first 
taught us to play, — all men of the last century, 
— have at various times contributed to our earlier 



THE FIRST EDITION. 



ix 



annals : while Thomas Beagley, for some days 
our landlord, the late Mr. Ward, and especially 
Mr. E. H. Budd, often our antagonist in Lans- 
down matches, have respectively assisted in the 
first twenty years of the present century. 

But, distinct mention must we make of one 
most important Chronicler, whose recollections 
were coextensive with the whole history of the 
game in its matured and perfect form — William 
Fennex. And here we must thank our kind 
friend the Rev. John Mitford, of Benhall, for his 
memoranda of many a winter's evening with that 
fine old player, = — papers especially valuable be- 
cause Fennex's impressions were so distinct, and 
his observation so correct, that, added to his 
practical illustrations with bat and ball, no other 
man could enable us so truthfully to compare 
ancient with modern times. Old Fennex, in 
his declining years, was hospitably appointed by 
Mr. Mitford to a sinecure office, created ex- 
pressly in his honour, in the beautiful gardens of 
Benhall ; and Pilch, and Box, and Bayley, and all 
his old acquaintance, will not be surprised to hear 
that the old man would carefully water and roll 
his little cricket-ground on summer mornings, 
and on wet and wintry days would sit in the 



X 



PREFACE TO 



chimney-corner, dealing over and over again by 
the hour, to an imaginary partner, a very dark 
and dingy pack of cards, and would then sally 
forth to teach a long remembered lesson to some 
hob-nailed frequenter of the village ale-house. 

So much for the History : but why should we 
venture on the Science of the game ? 

Many may be excellently qualified, and have 
a fund of anecdote and illustration, still not one 
of the many will venture on a book. Hundreds 
play without knowing principles; many know 
what they cannot explain; and some could ex- 
plain, but fear the certain labour and cost, with 
the most uncertain return, of authorship. For 
our own part, we have felt our way. The wide 
circulation of our " Recollections of College Days" 
and " Course of English Reading " promises a 
patient hearing on subjects within our proper 
sphere ; and that in this sphere lies Cricket, we 
may without vanity presume to assert. For in 
August last, at Mr. Dark's Repository at Lord's, 
our little treatise on the " Principles of Scientific 
Batting" (Slatter : Oxford, 1835) was singled out 
as i( the book which contained as much on Cricket 
as all that had ever been written, and more be- 
sides." That same day did we proceed to arrange 



THE FIRST EDITION. 



xi 



with Messrs. Longman, naturally desirous to lead 
a second advance movement, as we led the first, 
and to break the spell which, we had thus been 
assured, had for fifteen years chained down the in- 
vention of literary cricketers at the identical point 
where we left off ; for, not a single rule or principle 
has yet been published in advance of our own; 
though more than one author has been kind enough 
to adopt (thinking, no doubt, the parents were 
dead) our ideas, and language too ! 

" Shall we ever make new books," asks 
Tristram Shandy, "as apothecaries make new 
mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into 
another ? " No. But so common is the failing, 
that actually even this illustration of plagiarism 
Sterne stole from Burton ! 

Like solitary travellers from unknown lands, 
we are naturally desirous to offer some confirma- 
tion of statements, depending otherwise too much 
on our literary honour. We, happily, have received 
the following from — we believe the oldest player 
of the day who can be pronounced a good player 
still— Mr. E. H. Budd: — 

fc I return the proof-sheets of the History of 
my Contemporaries, and can truly say that they 
do indeed remind me of old times. I find one 



PEEFACE TO 



thing only to correct, which I hope you will be 
in time to alter, for your accuracy will then, to 
the best of my belief, be wholly without excep- 
tion : — write twenty guineas, and not twenty-five, 
as the sum offered, by old Thomas Lord, if any 
one should hit out of his ground where now is 
Dorset Square. 

(( You invite me to note further particulars for 
your second edition : the only omission I can at 
present detect is this, — the name of Lord George 
Kerr, son of the Marquis of Lothian, should be 
added to your list of the Patrons of the Old 
Surrey Players; for, his lordship lived in the 
midst of them at Farnham; and, I have often 
heard Beldham say, used to provide bread and 
cheese and beer for as many as would come out 
and practise on a summer's evening : this is too 
substantial a supporter of the Noble Game to be 
forgotten." 

We must not conclude without grateful acknow- 
ledgments to some distinguished amateurs repre- 
senting the science both of the northern and the 
southern counties, who have kindly allowed us to 
compare notes on various points of play. In all 
of our instructions in Batting, we have greatly 
benefited by the assistance, in the first instance, 



THE FIRST EDITION. 



Xlll 



of Mr. A. Bass of Burton, and his friend Mr. 
Whateley, a gentleman who truly understands 
" Philosophy in Sport." Then, the Hon. Robert 
Grimston judiciously suggested some modification 
of our plan. We agreed with him that, for a 
popular work, and one ' ■ for play hours," the 
lighter parts should prevail over the heavier ; for, 
with most persons, a little science goes a long 
w T ay, and our "winged words," if made too 
weighty, might not fly far ; seeing, as said Thucy- 
dides*, "men do find it such a bore to learn any 
thing that gives them trouble." For these reasons 
we drew more largely on our funds of anecdote 
and illustration, which had been greatly enriched 
by the contributions of a highly valued corre- 
spondent — Mr. E. S. E. Hartopp. When thus 
the science of batting had been reduced to its fair 
proportions, it was happily undertaken by the 
Hon. Frederick Ponsonby, not only through kind- 
ness to ourselves personally, but also, we feel 
assured, because he takes a pleasure in protecting 
the interests of the rising generation. By his 
advice, we became more distinct in our expla- 
nations, and particularly careful of venturing on 



* B. L c. 20. 



xiv PEEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



such refinements of science as, though sound in 
theory, may possibly produce errors in practice. 

" Tantce molis erat Cricetanum condere Campum." 

For our artist we have one word to say : not 
indeed for the engravings in our frontispiece, — 
these having received unqualified approbation ; 
but, we allude to the illustrations of attitudes. 
In vain did our artist assure us that a fore-short- 
ened position would defy every attempt at ease, 
energy, or elegance ; we felt bound to insist on 
sacrificing the effect of the picture to its utility as 
an illustration. Our principal design is to show 
the position of the feet and bat with regard to the 
wicket, and how every hit, with one exception, 
the Cut, is made by no other change of attitude 
than results from the movement of the left foot 
alone. 

J. P. 

Barnstaple, 
April 1 5th, 1851. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAP. I 

Page 

Origin of the Game of Cricket 1 
CHAP. IL 

The general Character of Cricket - - - 16 
CHAP. Ill 

The Hambledon Club and the Old Players - - 40 
CHAP. XV. 

Cricket generally established as a National Game 

by the End of the last Century - » - 56 

CHAP. V. 

The First Twenty Years of the present Century - 82 
CHAP. VI. 

A dark Chapter in the History of Cricket - - 99 
CHAP. VII. 

The Science and Art of Batting - - 110 



xvi 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. VIII. 
Hints against Slow Bowling 

CHAP. IX. 
Bowling. — An Hour with "Old Clarke" 

CHAP. X. 

Hints on Fielding - 



CHAP. XI. 
Chapter of Accidents. — Miscellaneous 



/ 



THE CRICKET FIELD 

— " 



CHAPTER % 

OEIGIN OF THE GAME OF CRICKET. 

The Game of Cricket, in some rude form, is un- 
doubtedly as old as the thirteenth century. But 
whether at that early date Cricket was the name 
it generally bore is quite another question. For 
Club-Ball we believe to be the name which 
usually stood for Cricket in the thirteenth cen- 
tury ; though, at the same time, we have some 
curious evidence that the term Cricket at that 
early period was also known. But the identity 
of the game with that now in use is the chief 
point ; the name is of secondary consideration. 
Games commonly change their names, as every 
schoolboy knows, and bear different appellations 
in different places. 

Nevertheless, all previous writers acquiescing 
quietly in the opinion of Strutt, expressed in his 
| u Sports and Pastimes," not only forget that 

I B 



2 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Cricket may be older than its name, but erro- 
neously suppose that the name of Cricket occurs 
in no author in the English language of an earlier 
date than Thomas D'Urfey, who, in his " Pills to 
purge Melancholy," writes thus : — 

" Herr was the prettiest fellow 
At foot-ball and at Cricket; 
At hunting chase or nimble race 
How featly Herr could prick it." 

The words " How featly " Strutt properly writes 
in place of a revolting old-fashioned oath in the 
original. 

Strutt, therefore, in these lines quotes the 
word Cricket as first occurring in 1710. 
About the same date Pope wrote, — 

M The Judge to dance his brother Sergeants call, 
The Senators at Cricket urge the ball." 

And Duncome, curious to observe, laying the 
scene of a match near Canterbury, wrote, — 

" An ill-timed Cricket Match there did 
At Bishops-bourne befal." 

Soame Jenyns, also, early in the same century, 
wrote in lines that showed that cricket was very 
much of a " sporting " amusement : — 

" England, when once of peace and wealth possessed, 
Began to think frugality a jest; 



ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 



3 



So grew polite : hence all her well-bred heirs 
Gamesters and jockeys turned, and cnc£e£-players." 

Ep. I. b. ii., init. 

However, we are happy to say that even 
among comparatively modern authors we have 
beaten Strutt in his researches by twenty-five 
years; for Edward Phillips, John Milton's ne- 
phew, in his " Mysteries of Love and Eloquence " 
(8vo. 1685), writes thus: — 

" Will you not, when you have me, throw stocks at my 
head and cry, 4 Would my eyes had been beaten out of my 
head with a cricket-ball the day before I saw thee ? ' " 

We shall presently show the word Cricket, in 
Richelet, as early as the year 1680. 

A late author has very sensibly remarked that 
Cricket could not have been popular in the days 
of Elizabeth, or we should expect to find allusions 
to that game, as to tennis, football, and other 
sports, in the early poets; but Shakspeare and 
the dramatists who followed, he observes, are 
silent on the subject. 

As to the silence of the early poets and drama- 
tists on the crame of cricket — and no one conver- 
sant with English literature would expect to find 
it except in some casual allusion or illustration in 
an old play — this silence we can confirm on the 
best authority. What if we presumed to advance 
that the early dramatists, one and all, ignore 



4 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



the very name of cricket. How bold a negative ! 
So rare are certain old plays that a hundred 
pounds have been paid by the Duke of Devon- 
shire for a single copy of a few loose and soiled 
leaves ; and shall we pretend to have dived among 
such hidden stores ? We are so fortunate as to 
be favoured with the assistance of the Rev. John 
Mitford and our loving cousin John Payne Col- 
lier, two English scholars, most deeply versed in 
early literature, and no bad judges of cricket ; and 
since these two scholars have never met with any 
mention of cricket in the early dramatists, nor in 
any author earlier than 1685, there is, indeed, 
much reason to believe that u Cricket" is a word 
that does not occur in any English author before 
the year 1685. 

But though it occurs not in any English author, 
is it found in no rare manuscript yet unpublished ? 
We shall see. 

Now as regards the silence of the early poets, a 
game like cricket might certainly exist without 
falling in with the allusions or topics of poetical 
writers. Still, if we actually find distinct cata- 
logues and enumerations of English games before 
the date of 1685, and Cricket is omitted, the sus- 
picion that Cricket was not then the popular 
name of one of the many games of ball (not that 
the game itself was positively unknown) is strongly 
confirmed. 



ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 



5 



Six such catalogues are preserved ; one in the 
K Anatomy of Melancholy," a second in a well- 
known treatise of James I., and a third in the 
ft Cotswold Games," with three others. 

I. For the first catalogue, Strutt reminds us of 
the set of rules from the hand of James I. for the 
" nurture and conduct of an heir-apparent to the 
throne," addressed to his eldest son, Henry Prince 
of Wales, called the BA2IAIKON AX1PON, or 
a " Kinge's Christian Dutie towards God." 
Herein the king forbids gaming and rough play : 
" As to diceing, I think it becometh best de- 
boshed souldiers to play on the heads of their 
drums. As to the foote-ball, it is meeter for 
laming, than making able, the users thereof." But 
a special commendation is given to certain games 
of ball ; " playing at the catch or tennis, palle- 
malle, and such like other fair and pleasant field- 
games P Certainly cricket may have been in- 
cluded under the last general expression, though 
by no means a fashionable game in J ames's reign, 

II. For the second catalogue of games, Burton 
in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," "the only 

J book," said Dr, Johnson, " that ever took me out 
I of bed two hours sooner than I wished to rise," — 
gives a view of the sports most prevalent in the 
seventeenth century. Here we have a very full 
enumeration : it specifies the pastimes of " great 
men," and those of " base inferior persons ; " it 

B 3 



6 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



mentions "the rocks on which men lose them- 
selves " by gambling ; how " wealth runs away 
with their hounds, and their fortunes fly away 
with their hawks." Then follow " the sights and 
shows of the Londoners," and the "May-games 
and recreations of the country-folk." More mi- 
nutely still, Burton speaks of "rope-dancers, cock- 
fights," and other sports common both to town 
and country ; still, though Burton is so exact as to 
specify all "winter recreations" separately, and 
mentions even " foot-balls and ballowns," saying 
" Let the common people play at ball and barley- 
brakes," there is in all this catalogue no mention 
whatever of Cricket. 

III. As a third catalogue, we have the " Cots- 
wold Games," but cricket is not among them. 
This was an annual celebration which one Cap- 
tain Dover, by express permission and command 
of James I., held on the Cotswold Hills, in 
Gloucestershire. 

IV. Fourthly : cricket is not mentioned in 
" The compleat Gamester,'* published by Charles 
Browne, in 1709. 

V. " I have many editions of Chamberlayne's 
< State of England,'" kindly writes Mr. T. B. 
Macaulay, "published between 1670 and 1700, 
and I observe he never mentions cricket among 
the national games, of which he gives a long list." 

VI. The great John Locke wrote in 1679, 



ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 



7 



" The sports of England for a curious stranger 
to see, are horse-racing, hawking, hunting, and 
Bowling: at Marebone and Putney he may see 
several persons of quality bowling two or three 
times a week : also, wrestling in Lincoln's Inn 
Fields every evening ; bear and bull-baiting at 
the bear garden ; shooting w T ith the long bow, and 
stob-ball, in Tothill Fields ; and cudgel playing 
in the country, and hurling in Cornwall." Here 
again we have no Cricket. Stob-ball is a different 
game. 

Nevertheless we have a catalogue of games of 
about 1700, in Stow's " Survey of London," and 
there Cricket is mentioned ; but, remarkably 
enough, it is particularised as one of the amuse- 
ments of " the lower classes." The whole passage 
is curious : — 

" The modern sports of the citizens, besides 
drinking (!), are cock-fighting, bowling upon 
greens, backgammon, cards, dice, billiards, also 
musical entertainments, dancing, masks, balls, 
stage-plays, and club-meetings in the evening; 
they sometimes ride out on horseback, and hunt 
with the lord mayor's pack ctf dogs, when the 
common hunt goes on. The lower classes divert 
themselves at foot-ball, wrestling, cudgels, nine- 
pins, shovel-board, cricket, stow-ball, ringing of 
bells, quoits, pitching the bar, bull and bear bait- 
ings, throwing at cocks, and lying at ale-houses." (!) 

B 4 



8 



THE CEICKET FIELD, 



The lawyers have a rule that to specify one 
thing is to ignore the other ; and this rule of 
evidence can never be more applicable than where 
a sport is omitted from six distinct catalogues ; 
therefore, the conclusion that Cricket was unknown 
when those lists were made would indeed appear 
utterly irresistible, only — audi semper alteram 
partem — in this case the argument would prove 
too much ; for it would equally prove that Club- 
ball and Trap-ball were undiscovered too, whereas 
both these games are confessedly as old as the 
thirteenth century ! 

The conclusion of all this is, that the oft-re- 
peated assertions that Cricket is a game no older 
than the eighteenth century is erroneous : for, 
first, the thing itself may be much older than its 
name ; and, secondly, the " silence of antiquity " 
is no conclusive evidence that even the name of 
Cricket was really unknown. 

Thus do we refute those who assert a negative 
as to the antiquity of cricket : and now for our 
affirmative ; and we are prepared to show — 

First, that a single-wicket game was played as 
early as the thirteenth century, under the name 
of Club-ball. 

Secondly, that it might have been identical 
with a sport of the same date called " Handyn 
and Handoute." 

Thirdly, that a genuine double- wicket game 



ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 



9 



was played in Scotland about 1700, under the 
name of " Cat and Dog." 

Fourthly, that ei Creag," — very near " Cricce," 
the Saxon term for the crooked stick, or bandy, 
which we see in the old pictures of cricket, — 
was the name of a game played in the year 1300. 

First, as to a single-wicket game in the thir- 
teenth century, whatever the name of the said 
game might have been, we are quite satisfied 
with the following proof : — 

"In the Bodleian Library at Oxford," says 
Strutt, "is a MS. (No. 264.) dated 1344, which 
represents a figure, a female, in the act of bowling 
a ball (of the size of a modern cricket-ball) to a 
man who elevates a straight bat to strike it ; be- 
hind the bowler are several figures, male and 
female, waiting to stop or catch the ball, their 
attitudes grotesquely eager for a 6 chance.' The 
game is called Club-ball, but the score is made by 
hitting and running, as in cricket." 

Secondly, Barrington, in his " Remarks on the 
More Ancient Statutes," comments on 17 Edw. 
IV. a.d. 1477, thus : — 

" The disciplined soldiers were not only guilty 
of pilfering on their return, but also of the vice 
of gaming. The third chapter therefore forbids 
playing at cloish, ragle, half-bowle, quekeborde, 
handyn and handoute. Whosoever shall permit 
these games to be played in their house or yard 



10 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



is punishable with three years 5 imprisonment; 
those who play at any of the said games are to be 
fined 10/., or lie in jail two years." 

" This," says Barrington, " is the most severe 
law ever made in any country against gaming; 
and, some of those forbidden seem to have been 
manly exercises, particularly the "handyn and 
handoute," which I should suppose to be a kind of 
cricket, as the term hands is still (writing in 1740) 
retained in that game." 

Thirdly, as to the double- wicket game, Dr. 
Jamieson, in his Dictionary, published in 1722, 
gives the following account of a game played in 
Angus and Lothian : — 

" This is a game for three players at least, 
who are furnished with clubs. They cut out two 
holes, each about a foot in diameter and seven 
inches in depth, and twenty-six feet apart ; one 
man guards each hole with his club ; these clubs 
are called Dogs. A piece of wood, about four 
inches long and one inch in diameter, called a Cat, 
is pitched, by a third person, from one hole to- 
wards the player at the other, who is to prevent 
the cat from getting into the hole. If it pitches 
in the hole, the party who threw it takes his turn 
with the club. If the cat be struck, the club- 
bearers change places, and each change of place 
counts one to the score, like club-ball" 

The last observation shows that in the game of 



ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 



11 



Club-ball above-mentioned, the score was made 
by " runs," as in cricket. 

In what respect, then, do these games differ 
from cricket as played now ? The only excep- 
tion that can be taken is to the absence of any 
wicket. But every one familiar with a paper 
given by Mr. Ward, and published in " Old 
Nyren," by the talented Mr. C. Cowden Clarke, 
will remember that the traditionary u blockhole " 
was a veritable hole in former times, and that the 
batsman was made Out in running, not, as now, 
by putting down a wicket, but by popping the 
ball into the hole before the bat was grounded in 
it. The same paper represents that the wicket 
was two feet wide, — a width which is only ren- 
dered credible by the fact that the said hole was 
not like our mark for guard, four feet distant 
from the stumps, but cut like a basin in the turf 
between the stumps ; an arrangement which would 
require space for the frequent struggle of the 
batsman and wicket-keeper, as to whether the bat 
of the one, or the hand of the other, should reach 
the blockhole first. 

The conclusion of all is, that Cricket is identical 
with Club-ball, — a game played in the thirteenth 
century as single-wicket, and played, if not then, 
somewhat later as a double-wicket game; that 
where balls were scarce, a Cat, or bit of wood, as 
seen in many a village, supplied its place; also that 



12 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



"handyn and handoute" was probably only another 
name. Fosbroke, in his Dictionary of Antiquities, 
said, " club-ball was the ancestor of cricket : " he 
might have said, " club-ball was the old name for 
cricket, the games being the same." 

The points of difference are not greater than 
every cricketer can show between the game as 
now played and that of the last century. 

But, lastly, as to the name of Cricket. The 
bat, which is now straight, is represented in old 
pictures as crooked, and " cricce" is the simple 
Saxon word for a crooked stick. The derivation 
of Billiards from the Norman billart, a cue, or 
from ball-yard, according to Johnson, also Nine- 
pins and Trapball, are obvious instances of games 
which derived their names from the implements 
with which they are played. Now it appears 
highly probable that the crooked stick used in the 
game of Bandy might have been gradually 
adopted, especially when a wicket to be bowled 
down by a rolling ball superseded the blockhole 
to be pitched into. In that case the club having 
given way to the bandy or crooked bat of the last 
century, the game, which first was named from 
the club " club-ball," might afterwards have been 
named from the bandy or crooked stick " cricket." 

Add to which, the game might have been 
played in two ways, — sometimes more in the 
form of Club-ball, sometimes more like Cricket ; 



ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 



13 



and the following remarkable passage proves that 
a term very similar to Cricket was applied to 
some game as far back as the thirteenth century, 
the identical date to which we have traced that 
form of cricket called club-ball and the game of 
handyn and handoute. 

From the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. IviiL p. 
h 9 A. D. 1788, we extract the following: — 

" In the wardrobe account of the 28th year 
of King Edward the First, a.d. 1300, published 
in 1787 by the Society of Antiquaries, among 
the entries of money paid one Mr. John Leek, 
his chaplain, for the use of his son Prince Edward 
in playing at different games, is the following: — 

" 6 Domino Johanni de Leek, capellano Domini 
Edwardi fil' ad Creag* et alios ludos per vices, 
per manus proprias, 100 s. Apud Westm. 10 die 
Aprilis, 1305.'" 

The writer observes, that the glossaries have 
been searched in vain for any other name of a 
pastime but cricket to which the term Creag' can 
apply. And why should it not be Cricket? for, 
we have a singular evidence that, at the same date, 
Merlin the Magician was a cricketer ! 

In the romance of " Merlin," a book in very 
old French, written about the time of Edward L, 
is the following : — 

" Two of his ( Vortiger's) emissaries fell in with 
certain children who were playing at cricket" 
— Quoted in Dunlop's " History of Fiction." 



14 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



The word here rendered cricket is la crosse; and 
in Richelet's Diet, of Ant. 1680, are these words: 

" Crosse, a Crosier. Baton de bois courbe par 
le bout d'en haut, dont on se sert pour jouer ou 
pousser quelque balle." 

" Crosseur, qui pousse — 6 Cricketer " 

Creag' and Cricket, therefore, being presumed 
identical, the cricketers of Warwick and of Glou- 
cester may be reminded that they are playing the 
same game as was played by the dauntless enemy 
of Robert Bruce, afterwards the prisoner at Ken- 
nilworth, and eventually the victim of Mortimer's 
ruffians in the dark tragedy of Berkeley Castle. 

To advert to a former observation that cricket 
was originally confined to the lower orders, Robert 
Southey notes, C. P. Book. iv. 201., that cricket 
was not deemed a game for gentlemen in the 
middle of the last century. Tracing this allusion 
to "The Connoisseur," No. 132. dated 1756, we 
are introduced to one Mr. Toby Bumper, whose 
vulgarities are, " drinking purl in the morning, 
eating black- puddings at Bartholomew Fair, boxing 
with Buckhorse," and also that " he is frequently 
engaged at the Artillery Ground with Faukner 
and Dingate at cricket, and is esteemed as good a 
bat as either of the Bennets." Dingate will be 
mentioned as an All-England player in our third 
chapter. 

And here we must observe that at the very 



ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 



date that a cricket-ground was thought as low as 
a modern skittle-alley, we read that even 

" Some Dukes at Mary'bone howled time away ;" 

and also that a Duchess of Devonshire could be 
actually watching the play of her guests in the 
skittle-alley till nine o'clock in the evening. 

Our game in later times, we know, has consti- 
tuted the pastime and discipline of many an En- 
glish soldier. Our barracks are now provided with 
cricket grounds ; every regiment and every man- 
of-war has its club ; and our soldiers and sailors 
astonish the natives of every clime, both inland 
and maritime, with a specimen of a British game : 
and it deserves to be better known that it was at 
a cricket match that " some of our officers were 
amusing themselves on the 12th June, 1815," 
says Captain Gordon, "in company with that 
devoted cricketer the Duke of Richmond, when 
the Duke of Wellington arrived, and shortly 
after came the Prince of Orange, which of course 
put a stop to our game. Though the hero of the 
Peninsula was not apt to let his movements be 
known, on this occasion he made no secret that, 
if he were attacked from the south, Halle would 
be his position, and, if on the Namur side, 
Waterloo." 



16 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



CHAP. H. 

THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET, 

The game of cricket, philosophically considered, 
is a standing panegyric on the English character : 
none but an orderly and sensible race of people 
would so amuse themselves. It calls into requi- 
sition all the cardinal virtues, some moralist would 
say. As with the Grecian games of old, the 
player must be sober and temperate. Patience, 
fortitude, and self-denial, the various bumps of 
order, obedience, and good-humour, with an un- 
ruffled temper, are indispensable. For intellec- 
tual virtues Ave want judgment, decision, and the 
organ of concentrativeness — every faculty in the 
free use of all its limbs — and every idea in con- 
stant air and exercise. Poor, rickety, and stunted 
wits will never serve : the widest shoulders are of 
little use without a head upon them : the cricketer 
wants wits down to his fingers' ends. As to 
physical qualifications, we require not only the 
volatile spirits of the Irishman Rampant, nor the 
phlegmatic caution of the Scotchman Couchant, 
but we want the English combination of the two ; 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 17 



though, with good generalship, cricket is a game 
for Britons generally : the three nations would 
mix not better in a regiment than in an eleven ; 
especially if the Hibernian were trained in Lon- 
don, and taught to enjoy something better than 
what Father Prout terms his supreme felicity, 
ce Otium cum dig-gin-taties" 

It was from the southern and south-eastern 
counties of England that the game of Cricket 
spread — not a little owing to the Propaganda of 
the metropolitan clubs, which played chiefly first 
at the Artillery Ground, then at White Conduit 
Fields, and thirdly at Thomas Lord's Grounds, (of 
which there were two before the present "Lord's,") 
as well as latterly at the Oval, Kennington, and 
on all sides of London — through all the southern 
half of England ; and during these last twenty 
years the northern counties, and even Edinburgh, 
have sent forth distinguished players. But con-* 
siclering that the complement of the game is 
twenty-two men, besides two Umpires and two 
Scorers ; and considering also that cricket, unlike 
every other manly contest, by flood or field, oc- 
cupies commonly more than one day ; the rail- 
ways, as might be expected, have tended wonder- 
fully to the diffusion of cricket, — giving rise to 
clubs depending on a circle of some thirty or forty 
miles, as also to that club in particular under the 
canonised saint, John Zingari, into whom are 

c 



18 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



supposed to have migrated all the erratic spirits of 
the gipsy tribe. The Zingari are a race of ubi- 
quitous cricketers, exclusively gentlemen-players ; 
for cricket affords to a race of professionals a 
merry and abundant, though rather a laborious 
livelihood, from the time the first May-fly is up to 
the time the first pheasant is down. Neither must 
we forget the All England and United Elevens, 
who, under the generalship of Clarke or Wisden, 
play numbers varying from fourteen to twenty- 
two in almost every county in England. So proud 
are provincial clubs of this honour that, besides a 
subscription of some 70/., and part or all of the 
money at the field-gate being willingly accorded 
for their services, much hospitality is exercised 
wherever they go. This tends to a healthy cir- 
culation of the life's blood of cricket, vaccinating 
and inoculating every wondering rustic with the 
principles of the national game. Our soldiers, 
we said, by order of the Horse Guards, are pro- 
vided with cricket-grounds adjoining their bar- 
racks; and all of her Majesty's ships have bats 
and balls to astonish the cockroaches at sea, and 
the crabs and turtles ashore. Hence it has come 
to pass that, wherever her Majesty's servants 
have " carried their victorious arms " and legs, 
w T ind and weather permitting, cricket has been 
played. Still the game is essentially Anglo- 
Saxon. Foreigners have rarely, very rarely, 
imitated us. The English settlers and residents 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 19 



everywhere play ; but of no single cricket club 
have we ever heard dieted either with frogs, sour 
crout, or macaroni. But how remarkable that 
cricket is not naturalised in Ireland ! the fact is 
very striking that it follows the course rather of 
ale than whiskey. Witness Kent, the land of 
hops, and the annual antagonists of " All Eng- 
land." Secondly, Farnham, which, as we shall 
presently show, with its adjoining parishes, nur- 
tured the finest of the old players, as well as the 
finest hops, — cunabula Troj<$, the infant school 
of cricketers. Witness also the Burton Clubs, 
assisted by our excellent friend next akin to 
bitter ale. Witness again Alton ale, on which 
old Beagley throve so well, and the Scotch ale of 
Edinburgh, on which J ohn Sparkes, though com- 
mencing with the last generation, has carried on 
his instructions, in which we ourselves once re- 
joiced, into the middle of the present century. 
The mountain mists and " mountain dew " suit 
better with deer-stalking than with cricket : our 
game disdains the Dutch courage of ardent spirits. 
The brain must glow with Nature's fire, and not 
depend upon a spirit lamp. Mens sana in corpore 
sano : feed the body, but do not cloud the mind. 
You, sir, with the hectic flush, the fire of your 
eyes burnt low in their sockets, with beak as 
sharp as a woodcock's from living upon suction, 
w r ith pallid face and shaky hand, — our game 

c 2 * 



20 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



disdains such ghostlike votaries. Rise with the 
lark and scent the morning air, and drink from 
the bubbling rill, and then, when your veins are 
no longer fevered with alcohol, nor puffed with 
tobacco smoke, — when you have rectified your 
illicit' spirits and clarified your unsettled judg- 
ment, — "come again and devour up my dis- 
course." And you, sir, with the figure of Falstaff 
and the nose of Bardolph, — not Christianly eating 
that you may live, but living that you may eat, 
— one of the nati consumer e fruges, the devouring 
caterpillar and grub of human kind — our noble 
game has no sympathy with gluttony, still less 
with the habitual ** diner out," on whom outraged 
nature has taken vengeance, by emblazoning what 
was his face (nimium ne crede colori\ encasing 
each limb in fat, and condemning him to be his 
own porter to the end of his days. " Then I am 
your man — and I — and I," cry a crowd of self- 
satisfied youths : " sound are we in wind and 
limb, and none have quicker hand or eye." 
Gently, my friends, so far well ; good hands and 
eyes are instruments indispensable, but only in- 
struments. There is a wide difference between 
a good workman and a bag of tools, however 
sharp. We must have heads as well as hands. 
You may be big enough and strong enough, but 
the question is whether, as Virgil says, 

" Spiritus intus edit, totamque infusa per artus 
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet? 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 21 



And; in these lines, Virgil truly describes the right 
sort of man for a cricketer : plenty of life in him : 
not barely soul enough, as Robert South said, to 
keep his body from putrefaction; but, however 
large his stature, though he weigh twenty stone, 
like (we will not say Mr. Mynn), but an olden 
wicket-keeper, named Burt, or a certain infant 
genius in the same line, of good Cambridge town, 
— he must, like these worthies aforesaid, have 
vovs in perfection, and be instinct with sense all 
over. Then, says Virgil, igneus est ollis vigor : 
" they must always have the steam up," other- 
wise the bard would have agreed with us, they 
are no good in an Eleven, because — 

" Noxia corpora tardant, 
Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra;" 

that is, you must suspend the laws of gravitation 
before they can stir, — dull clods of the valley, 
and so many stone of carrion ; and then Virgil 
proceeds to describe what discipline will render 
those, who suffer the penalties of idleness or in- 
temperance, fit to join the chosen few in the 
cricket-field : 

" Exinde per amplum 
Mittimur Elysium et pauci Iceta arva tenemus" 

Of course Elysium means " Lords," and Iceta arva s 
u the shooting fields." We make no apology for 
classical quotations. At the Universities, cricket 

c 3 



22 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



and scholarship very generally go together. When, 
in 1836, we played victoriously on the side of 
Oxford against Cambridge, seven out of our 
eleven were classmen ; and, it is doubtless only to 
avoid an invidious distinction that cc Heads v. 
Heels," as was once suggested, has failed to be 
an annual University match ; though the seri 
studiorum- — those put to school late — would not 
have a chance. We extract the following : — 

" In a late Convocation holden at Oxford, May 30, 1851, 
it was agreed to affix the University seal to a power of attorney 
authorising the sale of 2000Z. three per cent, consols, for the 
purpose of paying for and enclosing certain allotments of 
land in Cowley Common, used as cricket grounds by mem- 
bers of the University, in order to their being preserved for 
that purpose, and let to the several University cricket clubs 
in such manner as may hereafter appear expedient." 

From all this we argue that, on the au- 
thority of ancient and the experience of modern 
times, cricket wants mind as well as matter, 
and, in every sense of the word, a good un- 
derstanding. How is it that Clarke's slow bowl- 
ing is so successful ? ask Bay ley or Caldecourt ; or 
say Bayley's own bowling, or that of Lilly white, 
or others not much indebted to pace. " You see, 
sir, they bowl with their heads." Then only is 
the game worthy the notice of full-grown men. 
"A rubber of whist," says the author of the 
*' Diary of a late Physician," in his " Law Stu- 
dies," " calls into requisition all those powers of 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET, 23 



mind that a barrister most needs ; " and nearly as 
much may be said of a scientific game of cricket. 
Mark that first-rate bowler : the batsman is han- 
kering for his favourite cut — no — leg stump is 
attacked again — extra man on leg side — right 
— that's the spot — leg stump, and not too near 
him. He is screwed up, and cannot cut away ; 
Point has it — persevere — try again — his pa- 
tience soon will fail. Ah ! look at that ball ; — 
the bat was more out of the perpendicular — now 
the bowler alters his pace — good. A dropping 
ball — over-reached and all but a mistake; — 
now a slower pace still, with extra twist — hits 
furiously to leg, too soon. Leg- stump is grazed, 
and bail off. 6i You see, sir," says the veteran, 
turning round, " an old player, who knows what 
is, and what is not, on the ball, alone can resist all 
the temptations that leg-balls involve. Young 
players are going their round of experiments, and 
are too fond of admiration and brilliant hits ; 
whereas it is your upright straight players that 
worry a bowler — twenty-two inches of wood, by 
four and a quarter — every inch of them before the 
stumps, hitting or blocking, is rather dishearten- 
ing ; but the moment a man makes ready for a 
leg hit, only about five inches by four of wood 
can cover the wicket ; so leg-hitting is the bow- 
ler's chance : cutting also for a similar reason. 
If there were no such thing as leg-hitting, we 



24 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



should see a full bat every time, the man steady 
on his legs, and only one thing to think of ; and 
what a task a bowler w r ould have. That was 
Mr. Ward's play — -good for something to the last. 
First-rate straight play and free leg-hitting sel- 
dom last long together: when once exulting in 
the luxurious excitement of a leg volley, the 
muscles are always on the quiver to swipe round, 
and the bowler sees the bat raised more and more 
across wicket. So, also, it is with men who 
are yearning for a cut : forming for the cut, like 
forming for leg-hit — aye, and almost the idea of 
those hits coming across the mind — set the muscles 
off straight play, and give the bowler a chance. 
There is a deal of head-work in bowling: once 
make your batsman set his mind on one hit, and 
give him a ball requiring the contrary, and he is 
off his guard in a moment." 

Certainly, there is something highly intellectual 
in our noble and national pastime. But the 
cricketer must possess other qualifications; not 
only physical and intellectual, but moral qualifi- 
cations also. Of what avail is the head to plan and 
hand to execute, if a sulky temper paralyses ex- 
ertion, and throws a damp upon the field ; or if 
impatience dethrones judgment, and the man hits 
across at good balls, because loose balls are long 
in coming; or, again, if a contentious and im- 
perious disposition leaves the cricketer all c alone 
in his glory,' voted the pest of every eleven?" 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 26 



The pest of the hunting-field is the man always 
thinking of his own horse and own riding, gallop- 
ing against men and not after hounds. The pest 
of the cricket-field is the man who bores you 
about his average — his wickets — his catches ; 
and looks blue even at the success of his own 
party. If unsuccessful in batting or fielding, he 
gives up all — 66 the wretch concentred all in 
self." No ! Give me the man who forgets him- 
self in the game, and, missing a ball, does not stop 
to exculpate himself by dumb show, but rattles 
away after it — who does not blame his partner 
when he is run out — who plays like play and not 
like a painful operation. Such a chilly, bleak, 
northwest aspect some men do put on — it is 
absurd to say they are enjoying themselves. We 
all know it is trying to be out first ball. Oh ! 
that first look back at rattling stumps — cc why, I 
could'nt have had right guard !" — that conviction 
that the ball turned, or but for some unaccountable 
suspension of the laws of motion (the earth per- 
haps coming to a hitch upon its ungreased axis) 
it had not happened ! Then there's the spoiling of 
your average, (though some begin again and reckon 
anew !) and a sad consciousness that every critic in 
the three tiers of the Pavilion, as he coolly specu- 
lates " quis cuique dolor victo, quce gloria palmce" 
knows your mortification. Oh ! that sad walk 
back; a " returned convict ; " we must all pace it 3 



26 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



ie calcanda semel via leti" A man is sure never 
to take his eyes off the ground, and if there's a bit 
of stick in the way he kicks it instinctively with 
the side of his shoe. Add, that cruel post mortem 
examination into your " case," and having to 
answer the old question, How was it ? or perhaps 
forced to amue with some vexatious fellow who 
imputes it to the very fault on which you are so 
sore and sensitive. All this is trying ; but since it 
is always happening, an "inseparable accident " of 
the game, it is time that an unruffled temper 
should be held the te differentia " of the true 
cricketer and bad temper voted bad play. Eleven 
good-tempered men, other points equal, would 
beat eleven sulky or eleven irritable gentlemen 
out of the field. The hurling of bats and angry 
ebullitions show inexperience in the game and its 
chances ; as if any man in England could always 
catch, or stop, or score. This very uncertainty gives 
the game its interest. If Pilch or Parr were sure 
of runs, who would care to play? But as they 
make sometimes five and sometimes fifty, we still 
contend with flesh and blood. Even Achilles was 
vulnerable at the heel; or, mythologically, he 
could not stop a shooter to the leg stump. So 
never let the Satan icagency of the gaming-table 
brood on those " happy fields " where, strenua nos 
exercet inertia, there is an energy in our idle 
hours, not killing time but enjoying it. Look at 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 27 



good honest James Dean; his " patient merit " 
never " goes Out sighing " nor In, either — never 
in a mumbling, though a " melting mood." Per- 
spiration may roll off him, like bubbles from a 
duck's back, but it's all down to the dav's work. 
He looks, as every cricketer should look, like a 
man out for a holiday, shut up in " measureless 
content." It is delightful to see such a man make 
a score. 

Add to all this, perseverance and self-denial, 
and a soul above vain-glory and the applause of 
the vulgar. Aye, perseverance in well-doing — 
perseverance in a straightforward, upright, and 
consistent course of action. — See that player prac- 
tising apart from the rest. What an unpretend- 
ing style of play — a hundred pounds appear to 
depend on every ball — not a hit for these five 
minutes — see, he has a shilling on his stumps, 
and Hillyer is doing his best to knock it off. 
A question asked after every ball, the bowler 
being constantly invited to remind him of the 
least inaccuracy in hitting or danger in defence. 
The other players are hitting all over the field, 
making every one (but a good judge) marvel. 
Our friend's reward is that in the first good match, 
when some supposed brilliant Mr. Dashwood has 
been stumped from leg ball — (he cannot make his 
fine hits in his ground) — bowled by a shooter or 
caught by that sharpest of all Points "Aval; avSpcov, 



28 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



then our persevering friend — ball after ball drop- 
ping harmless from his bat, till ever and anon 
a single or a double are safely played away — 
has two figures appended to his name; and he 
is greeted in the Pavilion as having turned the 
chances of the game in favour of his side. 

Conceit in a cricketer, as in other things, is 
a bar to all improvement — the vain-glorious is 
always thinking of the lookers-on, instead of the 
game, and generally is condemned to live on the 
reputation of one skying leg-hit, or some twenty 
runs off three or four overs (his merriest life is a 
short one) for half a season. 

In one word, there is no game in which amia- 
bility and an unruffled temper is so essential to 
success, or in which virtue is rewarded, half as 
much as in the game of cricket. Dishonest or 
shuffling ways cannot prosper ; the umpires will 
foil every such attempt — those truly constitutional 
judges, bound by a code of written laws — and 
the public opinion of a cricket club, militates 
against his preferment. For cricket is a social 
game. Could a cricketer play a solo, or with a 
dummy (other than the catapult), he might play 
in humour or out of humour ; but an Eleven is of 
the nature of those commonwealths of which 
Cicero said that, without some regard to the car- 
dinal virtues, they could not possibly hold to- 
gether. 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 29 



Such a national game as cricket will both hu- 
manise and harmonise the people. It teaches a 
love of order, discipline, and fair play for the pure 
honour and glory of victory. The cricketer is a 
member of a wide fraternity : if he is the best man 
in his club, and that club is the best club in the 
county, he has the satisfaction of knowing his 
high position, and may aspire to represent some 
large and powerful constituency at Lord's. How 
spirit-stirring are the gatherings of rival counties ! 
And I envy not the heart that glows not with 
delight at eliciting the sympathies of exulting 
thousands, when all the country is thronging to 
its battle-field studded with flags and tents. Its 
very look makes the heart beat for the fortune of 
the play ; and for miles around the old coachman 
waves his whip above his head with an air of in- 
finite importance if he can only be the herald of 
the joyous tidings, " We've won the day." 

Games of some kind men must have, and it 
is no small praise of cricket that it occupies the 
place of less innocent sports. Drinking, gambling, 
i and cudgel-playing, insensibly disappear as you 
encourage a manly recreation which draws the 
labourer from the dark haunts of vice and misery 
to the open common, where 

" The squire or parson o' the parish, 
Or the attorney," 

may raise him, without lowering themselves, by 



30 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



taking an interest, if not a part, in his sports. 
" Nature abhors a vacuum," especially of mirth 
and merriment, resenting the folly of those who 
would disdain her bounties by that indifference 
and apathy which mark a very dull boy indeed. 
Nature designed us to sport and play at cricket 
as truly as to eat and drink. Without sport you 
have no healthful exercise : to refresh the body 
you must relax the mind. Observe the pale dys- 
peptic student ruminating on his logic, algebra, 
or political economy while describing his period- 
ical revolutions around his college garden or on 
Constitution Hill : then turn aside and gladden 
your eyes and ears with the buoyant spirits and 
exulting energies of Bullingdon or Lord's. See 
how nature rebels against " an airing," or a mile- 
stone-measured walk ! While following up a 
covey, or the windings of a trout-stream, we cross 
field after field unconscious of fatigue, and retain 
so pleasing a recollection of the toil, that years 
after, amidst the din and hum of men, we brighten 
at the thought, and yearn as did the poet near 
two thousand years ago, in the words, — 

" O rus, quando te aspiciam, quandoque licebit, 
Ducere sollicitce jucunda oblivia vitce." 

That an intelligent and responsible being should 
live only for amusement, is an error indeed, and 
one which brings its own punishment in that sink- 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 31 



ing of the heart when the cup is drained to the 
dregs, and pleasures cease to please. 

' 4 Nec lusisse pudet sed non incidere ludum." 

Still field-sports, in their proper season, are Na- 
ture's kind provision to smooth the frown from 
the brow, to allay " life's fitful fever," to — 

" Raze out the written troubles of the brain, 
And by some sweet oblivious antidote 
Cleanse the stuffed bosom from that perilous stuff, 
Which weighs upon the heart." 

And words are these, not a whit too strong for 
those who live laborious days, in this high-pressure 
generation. And, who does not feel his daily 
burthen lightened, while enjoying, pratorum viva 
voluptas, the joyous spirits and good fellowship of 
the cricket-field, those sunny hours when "the val- 
leys laugh and sing," and, between the greensward 
beneath and the blue sky above, you hear a hum 
of happy myriads enjoying their brief span too ! 

Who can describe that tumult of the breast, 
described by JEschylus, 

vtapoQ fiveXog arspvcav 

EVTOg CLVCKJGbJV — 

those yearning energies which find in this sport 
their genial exercise ! 

How generous and social is our enjoyment ! 
Every happy moment, — the ball springing from 
the bat, the sharp catch sounding in the palm, 
long reach or sudden spring and quick return, the 



32 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



exulting throw, or bails and wicket flying, — these 
all are joys enhanced by sympathy, purely re- 
flected from each other's eyes. In the cricket- 
field, as by the cover's side, the sport is in the 
free and open air and light of heaven. No incon- 
gruity of tastes nor rude collision interferes. 
None minds that another, how "unmannerly" 
soever, should "pass betwixt the wind and his 
nobility." One common interest makes common 
feeling, fusing heart with heart, thawing the 
frostwork of etiquette, and strengthening those 
silken ties which bind man to man. 

Society has its ranks and classes. These dis- 
tinctions we believe to be not artificial, but natural, 
even as the very courses and strata of the earth 
itself. Lines there are, nicely graduated, ordained 
to separate, what Burns calls, the tropics of no- 
bility and affluence, from the temperate zones of a 
comfortable independence, and the Arctic circles 
of poverty : but these lines are nowhere less 
marked, because nowhere less wanted, than in the 
cricket-field. There we can waive for awhile the 
precedence of birth, — 

" Contented with the rank that merit gives." 

And many an humble spirit, from this temporary 
preferment, learning the pleasure of superiority 
and well-earned applause, carries the same honest 
emulation into his daily duties. The cricket-field 
suggests a new version of the words 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 33 



" JEqua tellus 
Pauperi recluditur 
JRegumque pueris" 

" A fair stage and no favour." Kerseymere dis- 
dains not corduroys, nor fine clothes fustian. The 
cottager stumps out his landlord ; scholars dare to 
beat their masters ; and sons catch out those fathers 
who so often catch out them. William Beldham 
was many hours in the day "as good a man" as 
even Lord Frederick Beauclerk ; and the gallant 
Duke of Richmond would descend from his high 
estate to contest the palm of manly prowess with 
his humblest tenantry, so far acknowledging with 
Robert Burns, — 

" The rank is but the guinea stamp. 
The man's the gowd for a' that." 

Cricket forms no debasing habits : unlike the 
bull-fights of Spain, and the earlier sports of Eng- 
land, it is suited to the softer feelings of a refined 
age. No living creature suffers for our sport: 
no frogs or minnows impaled, or worms writhing 
upon fish-hooks, — no hare screaming before the 
hounds, — no wounded partridge cowering in its 
agony, haunts the imagination to qualify our 
pleasure. 

Cricket lies within the reach of average powers. 
A good head will compensate for hand and heels. 
It is no monopoly for a gifted few, nor are we 



34 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



soon superannuated. It affords scope for a great 
diversity of talent. Bowling, fielding, wicket- 
keeping, free hitting, safe and judicious play, and 
good generalship — in one of these points many a 
man has earned a name, though inferior in the 
rest. There are good batsmen and the best of 
fields among near-sighted men, and hard hitters 
among weak and crippled men ; in weight, nine 
stone has proved not too little for a first-rate, nor 
eighteen stone too much; and, as to age, Mr. 
Ward at sixty, Mr. E. H. Budd at sixty-five, and 
old John Small at seventy years of age, were useful 
men in good elevens. 

Cricket is a game available to poor as well as 
rich; it has no privileged class. Unlike shoot- 
ing, hunting, or yachting, there is no leave to ask, 
licence to buy, nor costly establishment to sup- 
port : the game is free and common as the light 
and air in which it is played, — the poor man's 
portion: with the poorer classes it originated, 
played " after hours" on village greens, and thence 
transplanted to patrician lawns. 

We extract the following : — • 

" The judge of the Brentford County Court has decided 
that cricket is a legal game, so as to render the stakeholder 
liable in an action for the recovery of the stakes, in a case 
where one of the parties had refused to play." 

Cricket is not solely a game of skill — chance 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 35 



has sway enough to leave the vanquished an if 
and a but. A long innings bespeaks good play ; 
but * out the first ball " is no disgrace. A game, 
to be really a game, really playful, should admit 
of chance as well as skill. It is the bane of 
chess that its character is too severe — to lose its 
games is to lose your character ; and most painful 
of all, to be outwitted in a fair and undeniable 
contest of long-headedness, tact, manoeuvring, 
and common sense — qualities in which no man 
likes to come off second best. Hence the restless 
nights and unforgiving state of mind that often 
follows a checkmate. Hence that " agony of 
rage and disappointment from which," said Syd- 
ney Smith, " the Bishop of broke my head 

with a chess-board fifty years ago at college." 

But did we say that ladies, famed as some have 
been in the hunting field, know anything of 
cricket too ? Not often ; though I could have 
mentioned two, — the wife and daughter of the late 
William Ward, all three now no more, who could 
tell you — the daughter especially — the forte and 
the failing of every player at Lord's. I accom- 
panied them home one evening, to see some records 
of the game, to their humble abode in Connaught 
Terrace, where many an ornament reminded me 
of the former magnificence of the Member for the 
City, the Bank Director, and the great Russia 
merchant ; and I thought of his mansion in the 

D 2 



36 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



once not unfashionable Bloomsbury Square, the 
banqueting room of which many a Wykehamist 
has cause to remember ; for when famed, as the 
Wykehamists were, for the quickest and best of 
fielding, they had won their annual match at 
Lord's (and twenty years since they rarely lost), 
Mr. Ward would bear away triumphantly the 
winners to end the day with him. But, talking 
of the ladies, to say nothing of Miss Willes, who 
revived over-hand bowling, their natural powers 
of criticism, if honestly consulted, would, we 
think, tell some home truths to a certain class of 
players who seem to forget that, to be a Cricketer 
one must still be a man ; and that a manly, graceful 
style of play is worth something independently 
of its effect on the score. Take the case of the 
Skating Club. Will they elect a man because, 
in spite of arms and legs centrifugally flying, he 
can do some tricks of a posture-master, however 
wonderful ? No ! elegance in simple movements 
is the first thing : without elegance nothing 
counts. And so should it be with cricket. I have 
seen men, accounted players, quite as bad as some 
of the cricketers in Mr. Pips's diary. " Pray, 
Lovell," I once heard, " have I the right guard ? " 
" Guard indeed ! Yes ! keep on looking as ugly 
and as awkward as you are now, and no man in 
England can bowl for fright ! " Apropos, one of 
the first hints in archery is, " don't make faces 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET, 37 



when you pull your bow." Now we do seriously 
entreat those young ladies, into whose hands this 
book may fall, to profess, on our authority, that 
they are judges of the game as far as appearance 
goes ; and also that they will quiz, banter, tease, 
lecture, never-leave-alone, and otherwise plague 
and worry all such brothers or husbands as they 
shall see enacting those anatomical contortions, 
which too often disgrace the s;ame of cricket. 

Cricket, we said, is a game chiefly of skill, but 
partly of chance. Skill avails enough for interest, 
and not too much for friendly feeling. No game 
is played in better humour — never lost till won — 
the game's alive till the last ball. For the most 
part, there is so little to ruffle the temper, or to 
cause unpleasant collision, that there is no place 
so free from temptation — no such happy plains or 
lands of innocence — as our cricket-fields. We 
2;ive bail for our s;ood behaviour from the moment 
that we enter them. Still, a cricket-field is a 
sphere of wholesome discipline in obedience and 
good order ; not to mention that manly spirit which 
faces danger without shrinking, and bears disap- 
pointment with good nature. Disappointment ! 
and say where is there more poignant disappoint- 
ment, while it lasts, than, after all your practice 
for a match, and anxious thought and resolution 
o avoid every chance, and score off every possible 
all, to be balked and run out, caught at the slip, 



38 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



or stumped even off a shooter. " The course of 
true love (even for cricket) never did run smooth." 
Old Robinson, one of the finest batsmen of his 
day, had six unlucky innings in succession : once 
caught by Hammond, from a draw ; then bowled 
with shooters, or picked up at short slip : the poor 
fellow said he had lost all his play, thinking iS the 
fault is in ourselves, and not our stars ; " and was 
with difficulty persuaded to play one match more, 
in which — whose heart does not rejoice to hear? 
— he made one hundred and thirty runs ! 

w But, as to stirring excitement," w r rites a friend, 
" what can surpass a hardly-contested match, when 
you have been manfully playing an up-hill game, 
and gradually the figures on the telegraph keep 
telling a better and a better tale, till at last the 
scorers stand up and proclaim a tie, and you win 
the game by a single and rather a nervous wicket, 
or by five or ten runs! If in the field with a 
match of this sort, and trying hard to prevent 
these few runs being knocked off by the last 
wickets, I know of no excitement so intense for 
the time, or which lasts so long afterwards. The 
recollection of these critical moments will make 
the heart jump for years and years to come; and 
it is extraordinary to see the delight with which 
men call up these grand moments to memory; and 
to be sure how they will talk and chatter, their 
eyes glistening and pulses getting quicker, as if 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 39 



they were again finishing 4 that rattling good 
match.' People talk of the excitement of a good 
run with the Quorn or Belvoir hunt. I have now 
and then tumbled in for these good things ; and, 
as far as my own feelings go, I can safely say that 
a fine run is not to be compared to a good match; 
and the excitement of the keenest sportsman is 
nothing either in intensity or duration to that 
caused by a c near thing ' at cricket. The next 
good run takes the place of the other; whereas 
hard matches, like the snow-ball, gather as they 
go. This is my decided opinion ; and that after 
watching and weighing the subject for some years, 
I have seen men tremble and turn pale at a near 
match, 

4 Quum spes arrectce juvenum exultantiaque haurit 
Corda pavor pulsans ' — 

while, through the field, the deepest and most 

awful silence reigns, unbroken but by some 
nervous fieldsman humming a tune or snapping 

his fingers to hide his agitation." 

" What a glorious sensation it is," writes Miss 
Mitford, in 6 Our Village,' " to be winning, win- 
ning, winning! Who would think that a little 
bit of leather and two pieces of wood had such 
a delightful and delighting power?" 

D 4 



40 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



CHAP. III. 

THE HAMBLEDON CLUB AND THE OLD PLATERS. 

What have become of the old scores and the 
earliest records of the game of cricket ? Bentley's 
Book of Matches gives the principal games from 
the year 1786; but where are the earlier records 
of matches made by Dehaney, Paulet, and Sir 
Horace Mann ? All burnt ! 

What the destruction of Rome and its records 
by the Gauls was to Niebuhr, — what the fire of 
London was to the antiquary in his walk from 
Pudding Lane to Pie Corner, such was the burn- 
ing of the Pavilion at Lord's, and all the old score 
books — it is a mercy that the old painting of the 
M. C. C. was saved — to the annalist of cricket. 
" When we were built out by Dorset Square," 
says Mr. E. H. Budd, "we played for three 
years where the Regent's Canal has since been 
cut, and still called our ground ' Lord's,' and 
our dining-room 6 the Pavilion.' Here manv 
a time have I looked over the old papers of 
Dehaney and Sir H. Mann ; but the room was 
burnt, and the old scores perished in the flames. 



THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 



41 



The following are curious as the two oldest scores 
preserved j — one of the Norths the other of the 
South : — 



NAMES OF THE PERSONS WHO PLATED AGAINST 
SHEFFIELD. 



In 1771 at Nottingham, and 1772 at Sheffield, 



Nottingham, Aug. 26, 1771. 



Huthwayte 


Coleman 


Turner 




Turner 


Loughman 


Loughman 


Coleman 


Roe 


Roe 




Spurs 


Spurr 




Stocks 


Stocks 




Collishaw 


Collishaw 


Troop 


Troop 




Mew 


Mew 




Bamford 


Raw son. 


Gladwin. 


Sheffield. 


Nottingham. 


Nottingham. 


1st inn. 81 


1st inn. 76 


1st inn. 14 


2nd 62 


2nd 112 




3rd 105 






248 


188 





Tuesday, 9 o'clock, a. m. 
commenced, 8th man 0, 9th 
5, 1 to come in, and only 60 
a head, when the Sheffield left 
the field. 



Sheffield, June 1, 1772. 



Sheffield. 
Near 70 



Nottingham gave in. 



42 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



KENT AGAINST ALL ENGLAND. 

Played in the Artillery- Ground \ London^ 1746. 



ENGLAND. 



1st Innings. 



RUNS. 

Harris b 

Dingate 3 b 

Newland b 

Cuddy b 

Green b 

Wayinark 7 b 

Bryan 12 s 

Newland 18 - 

Harris b 

Smith ......... c 

Newland b 

Byes 

40 



by Hadswell 

Ditto 

Mills 

Hadswell 

Mills 

Ditto 

Kips 

- not out ... 

Hadswell . 

Bartrum.. 

Mills 

Byes ... 



2nd Innings. 

RUNS. 

4 b by Mills. 

11 b Hadswell. 

3 b Ditto. 

2 b Danes. 

5 b Mills. 

9 b Hadswell. 

7 c Kips. 

15 c Ld. J. Sackville. 

1 b Hadswell. 

8 b Mills. 

5 — not out. 


70 



KENT. 



1st Innings. 



2nd Innings. 



Lord Sackville 


RUNS. 

5 c 


by Way mark 


RUNS. 

3 b by Harris. 


Long Robin ... 


7 


b 


Newland.. 


9 


b 


Newland. 


Mills 





b 


Harris ... 


6 


c 


Ditto. 







b 


Ditto 


5 




not out. 




3 


c 




7 




not out. 




2 


b 


Newland . 





b 


Newland. 




6 


b 







c 


Smith. 







c 


Waymark 


5 


b 


Newland. 




12 


b 




10 


b 


Harris. 


Mills 


7 




- not out.... 


2 


b 


New land. 




11 


b 




8 


c 


Harris. 









Byes.... 


3 







53 



58 



THE HAMBLEDON CLL'B. 



43 



Cricket was introduced into Eton early in the 
last century. Horace Walpole was sent to Eton 
in the year 1726. Playing cricket, as well as 
thrashing; bargemen, was common at that time. 
For in TTalpole's Letters, vol. i. p. 4., he says, — 

rt I can't say I am sorry I was never quite a 
school-boy ; an expedition against bargemen, or 
a match at cricket, may be very pretty things to 
recollect ; but, thank my stars, I can remember 
things that are very near as pretty." 

The fourth Earl of Carlisle learnt cricket at 
Eton at the same time. The Earl writes to George 
Selwyn, even from Manheirn, that he was up, play- 
ing at cricket, before Selwyn was out of his bed. 

And now, the' oldest chronicler is Old Nyren, 
who wrote an account of the cricketers of his 
time. The said Old Jsyren borrowed the pen 
of our kind friend Charles Cowclen Clarke, to 
whom John Keats dedicated an epistle, and who 
rejoiced in the friendship of Charles Lamb ; and 
none but a spirit akin to Elia could have written 
like w Old Nyren." ISTyren was a fine old Eng- 
lish yeomen, whose chivalry was cricket; and 
Mr. Clarke has faithfully recorded his vivid de- 
scriptions and animated recollections. And, with 
this charming little volume in hand, and inkhorn 
at my button, in 1837 I made a tour among the 
cottages of William Beldham, and the few sur- 
viving worthies of the same generation ; and, hav- 



44 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



ing also the advantage of a MS. by the Rev. John 
Mitford, taken from many a winter's evening 
with Old Fennex, I am happy to attempt ^the 
best account that the lapse of time admits, of 
cricket in the olden time. 

From a MS. my friend received from the late 
Mr. "William Ward, it appears that the wickets 
were placed twenty-two yards apart as long since 
as the year 1700; that stumps were then only 
one foot high, but two feet wide. The width 
some persons have doubted ; but it is rendered 
credible by the auxiliary evidence that there was, 
in those days, width enough between the two 
stumps for cutting the wide blockhole already 
mentioned, and also because — whereas now we 
hear of stumps and bails — we read formerly of 
" two stumps with one stump laid across." 

We are informed, also, that putting down the 
wickets to make a man out in running, instead of 
the old custom of popping the ball into the hole, 
was adopted on account of severe injuries to the 
hands, and that the wicket was changed at the 
same time — 1779-1780 — to the dimensions of 
twenty-two inches by six, with a third stump 
added. 

Before this alteration the art of defence was 
almost unknown : balls often passed over the 
wicket, and often passed through. At the time 
of the alteration Old Nyren truly predicted that 



THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 



45 



the innings would not be shortened but better 
played. The long pod and curved form of the 
bat, as seen in the old paintings, was made only 
for hitting, and for ground balls too. Length 
balls were then by no means common ; neither 
would low stumps encourage them : and even 
upright play was then practised by very few. 
Old Nyren relates that one Harry Hall, a ginger- 
bread baker of Farnham, gave peripatetic lectures 
to young players, and always insisted on keeping 
the left elbow well up ; in other words, on straight 
play. " Now-a-days," said Beldham, " all the 
world knows that ; but when I began there was 
very little length bowling, very little straight 
play, and little defence either." Fennex, said he, 
was the first who played out at balls ; before his 
day, batting was too much about the crease. 
Beldham said that his own supposed tempting of 
Providence consisted in running in to hit. " You 
do frighten me there jumping out of your ground, 
said our Squire Paulet :" and Fennex used also 
to relate how, when he played forward to the 
pitch of the ball, his father " had never seen the 
like in all his days ; " the said days extending a 
long way back towards the beginning of the 
century. While speaking of going in to hit, 
Beldham said, " My opinion has always been that 
too little is attempted in that direction. Judge 
your ball, and, when the least overpitched, go in 



48 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



and hit her away." In this opinion Mr. C. 
Taylor's practice would have borne Beldham out : 
and a fine dashing game this makes ; only, it is a 
game for none but practised players. When you 
are perfect in playing in your ground, then, and 
then only, try how you can play out of it, as the 
best means to scatter the enemy and open the 
field. 

" As to bowling,'' continued Beldham, " when 
I was a boy (about 1780), nearly all bowling was 
fast, and all along the ground. In those days 
the Hambledon Club could beat all England ; 
but our three parishes around Farnham at last 
beat Hambledon." 

It is quite evident that Farnham was the cradle 
of cricketers. " Surrey," in the old scores, means 
nothing more than the Farnham parishes. This 
corner of Surrey, in every match against All 
England, was reckoned as part of Hampshire; and, 
Beldham truly said " you find us regularly on the 
Hampshire side in Bentley's Book." 

" 1 told you, sir," said Beldham, w that in my 
early days all bowling was what we called fast, or 
at least a moderate pace. The first lobbing slow 
bowler I ever saw was Tom Walker. When, in 
1792, England played Kent, I did feel so ashamed 
of such baby bowling ; but, after all, he did more 
than even David Harris himself. Two years 
after, in 1794,, at Dartford Brent, Tom Walker, 



THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 



47 



with his slow bowling, headed a side against 
David Harris, and beat him easily." 

" Kent, in early times, was not equal to our 
counties. Their great man was Crawte, and he 
was taken away from our parish of Alresford by 
Mr. Amherst, the gentleman who made the Kent 
matches. In those days, except around our parts, 
Farnham and the Surrey side of Hampshire, a 
little play went a long way. Why, no man used 
to be more talked of than Yalclen ; and, when he 
came among us, we soon made up our minds what 
the rest of them must be. If you want to know, 
sir, the time the Hambledon Club was formed, I 
can tell you by this ; — when we beat them in 
1780, I heard Mr. Paulet say, 4 Here have I been 
thirty years raising our club, and are we to be 
beaten by a mere parish ? ' so, there must have 
been a cricket club, that played every week regu- 
larly, as long ago as 1750. We used to go as 
eageriv to a match as if it were two armies fight- 
ing ; we stood at nothing if we were allowed the 
time. From our parish to Hambledon is twenty- 
seven miles, and we used to ride both ways the 
same day, early and late. At last, I and John 
Wells were about building a cart : you have heard 
of tax carts, sir ; well, the tax was put on then, 
and that stopped us. The members of the Ham- 
bledon Club had a caravan to take their eleven 
about ; they used once to play always in velvet 



48 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



caps. Lord Winchelsea's eleven used to play in 
silver laced hats ; and always the dress was knee- 
breeches and stockings. We never thought of 
knocks ; and, remember, I played against Browne 
of Brighton too. Certainly, you would see a bump 
heave under the stocking, and even the blood 
come through; but I never knew a man killed, 
now you ask the question, and I never saw any 
accident of much consequence, though many an 
all but, in my long experience. Fancy the old 
fashion before cricket shoes, when I saw John 
Wells tear a finger nail off against his shoe-buckle 
in picking up a ball ! " 

" Your book, sir, says much about old Nyren. 
This Nyren was fifty years old when I began to 
play ; he was our general in the Hambledon 
matches ; but not half a player, as we reckon now. 
He had a small farm and inn near Hambledon, 
and took care of the ground." 

" I remember when many things first came into 
the game which are common now. The law for 
Leg-before-wicket was not passed, nor much 
wanted, till Ring, one of our best hitters, was 
shabby enough to get his leg in the way, and take 
advantage of the bowlers ; and, when Tom Taylor, 
another of our best hitters, did the same, the 
bowlers found themselves beaten, and the law was 
passed to make leg-before-wicket Out. The law 
against jerking was owing to the frightful pace 



THE HAMBLEDOK CLUB. 



49 



Tom Walker put on, and I believe that he after- 
wards tried something more like the modern 
thro wing-bowling, and so caused the words against 
throwing also. Willes was not the inventor of 
that kind of round bowling ; he only revived what 
was forgotten or new to the young folk." 

" The umpires did not formerly pitch the 
wickets. David Harris used to think a great deal 
of pitching himself a good-wicket, and took much 
pains in suiting himself every match day." 

" Lord Stowell was fond of cricket. He em- 
ployed me to make a ground for him at Holt 
Pound." 

In the last century, when the waggon and the 
packhorse supplied the place of the penny train, 
there was little opportunity for those frequent 
meetings of men from distant counties that now 
puzzle us to remember who is North and who is 
South, who is Surrey or who is Kent. The 
matches then were truly county matches, and had 
more of the spirit of hostile tribes and rival clans. 
" There was no mistaking the Kent boys," said 
Beldham, " when they came staring in to the 
Green Man. A few of us had grown used to 
London, but Kent and Hampshire men had but 
to speak, or even show themselves, and you need 
not ask them which side they were on." So the 
match seemed like Sir Horace Mann and Lord 
Winchelsea and their respective tenantry — for 

E 



50 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



when will the feudal system be quite extinct ? 
and there was no little pride and honour in the 
parishes that sent them up, and many a flagon of 
ale depending in the farms or the hop grounds 
they severally represented, as to whether they 
should, as the spirit-stirring saying was, " prove 
themselves the better men." "I remember in 
one match," said Beldham, " in Kent, Ring was 
playing against David Harris. The game was 
much against him. Sir Horace Mann was cut- 
ting about with his stick among the daisies, and 
cheering every run, — you would have thought his 
whole fortune (and he would often bet some hun- 
dreds) was staked upon the game ; and, as a new 
man was going in, he went across to Ring, and 
said, 6 Ring, carry your bat through and make up 
all the runs, and I'll give you 10/. a-year for 
life.' Well, Ring was out for sixty runs, and 
only three to tie, and four to beat, and the last 
man made them. It was Sir Horace who took 
Aylward away with him out of Hampshire, but 
the best bat made but a poor bailiff, we heard. 

" Cricket was played in Sussex very early, 
before my day at least ; but, that there was no 
good play I know by this, that Richard Newland, 
of Slinden in Sussex, as you say, sir, taught old 
Richard Nyren, and that no Sussex man could be 
found to play him. Now, a second-rate player of 
our parish beat Newland easily : so you may judge 



THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 



51 



what the rest of Sussex then were. But before 
1780 there were some good players about Ham- 
bledon and the Surrey side of Hampshire. 
Crawte, the best of the Kent men, was stolen 
away from us ; so you will not be wrong, sir, in 
writing down that Farnham, and thirty miles 
round, reared all the best players up to my day, 
about 1780." 

" There were some who were then called 6 the 
old players,' " — and here Fennex's account quite 
agreed with BeldhamV, — "including Frame and 
old Small. And as to old Small, it is worthy of 
observation, that Bennett declared it was part of 
the creed of the last century, that Small was the 
man who ' found out cricket,' or brought play to 
any degree of perfection. Of the same school was 
Sueter, the wicket-keeper, who in those days had 
very little stumping to do, and Minshull and 
Colshorn, all mentioned in Nyren." " These men 
played puddling about their crease and had no 
freedom. I like to see a player upright and well 
forward, to face the ball like a man. The Duke 
of Dorset made a match at Dartford Brent between 
' the Old Players and the New.' — You laugh, 
sir," said this tottering silver-haired old man, 
"but we all were New once; — weli, I played 
with the Walkers, John Wells, and the rest of 
our men, and beat the Old ones very easily." 

Old John Small died, the last, if not the first of 

E 2 



52 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



the Hambledonians, in 1826. Isaac Walton, the 
father of Anglers, lived to the age of ninety-three. 
This father of Cricketers was in his ninetieth 
year. John Small played in all the great matches 
till he was turned of seventy. A fine skater and 
a good musician. But, how the Duke of Dorset 
took great interest in John Small, and how his 
Grace gave him a fiddle, and how John, like a 
modern Orpheus, beguiled a wild bull of its fury 
in the middle of a paddock, is it not written in 
the book of the chronicles of the playmates of Old 
Nvren? — In a match of Hambledon against All 
England, Small kept up his wicket for three days, 
and was not out after all. A pity his score is 
unknown. We should like to compare it with 
Mr. Ward's. 

" Tom Walker was the most tedious fellow to 
bowl to, and the slowest runner between wickets 
I ever saw. Harry was the hitter, — Harry's 
half-hour was as good as Tom's afternoon. I have 
seen Noah Mann, who was as fast as Tom was 
slow, in running a four, overtake him, pat him on 
the back, and say, ' Good name for you is Walker, 
for you never was a runner.' It used to be said 
that David Harris had once bowled him 170 balls 
for one run ! David was a potter by trade, and 
in a kind of skittle alley made between hurdles, 
he used to practise bowling four different balls 
from one end, and then picking them up he would 



THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 



53 



bowl them back again. His bowling cost him a 
great deal of practice ; but it proved well worth 
his while, for no man ever bowled like him, 
and he was always first chosen of all the men in 
England." — Nil sine labore, remember, young 
cricketers all. — " ' Lambert ' (not the great player 
of that name), said Nyren, 6 had a most deceitful 
and teasing way of delivering the ball ; he tum- 
bled out the Kent and Surrey men, one after 
another, as if picked off by a rifle corps. His 
perfection is accounted for by the circumstance 
that when he was tending his father's sheep, he 
would set up a hurdle or tw T o, and bowl away for 
hours together.' 

" There was some good hitting in those days, 
though too little defence. Tom Taylor would 
cut away in fine style, almost after the manner of 
Mr. Budd. Old Small was among the first mem- 
bers of the Hambledon Club. He began to play 
about 1750, and Lumpy Stevens at the same 
time. I can give you some notion, sir, of what 
cricket was in those days, for Lumpy, a very bad 
bat, as he was well aware, once said to me, 
' Beldham, w r hat do you think cricket must have 
been in those days when I was thought a good 
batsman ? ' But fielding was very good as far 
back as I can remember." — Now, what Beldham 
called good fielding must have been good enough. 
He w r as himself one of the safest hands at a catch. 



54 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Mr. Budd, when past forty, was still one of the 
quickest men I ever played with, taking always 
middle wicket, and often, by swift running, doing 
part of long field's work. Sparks, Fennex, 
Bennett, and young Small, and Mr, Parry, were 
first rate, not to mention Beagley, whose style of 
long stopping in the North and South Match of 
1836, made Lord Frederick and Mr. Ward justly 
proud of so good a representative of the game in 
their younger days. Albeit, an old player of 
seventy, describing the merits of all these men, 
said, " put Mr. King at point, Mr. C. Ridding 
long-stop, and Mr. W. Pickering cover, and I 
never saw the man that could beat either of 
them." 

"John Wells was a most dangerous man in a 
single wicket match, being so dead a shot at a 
wicket. In one celebrated match, Lord Frederick 
warned the Honourable H. Tufton to beware of 
John ; but John Wells found an opportunity of 
maintaining his character by shying down, from 
the side, little more than the single stump. Tom 
Sheridan joined some of our matches, but he was 
no good but to make people laugh. In our days 
there were no padded gloves. I have seen Tom 
Walker rub his bleeding fingers in the dust ! 
David used to say he liked to rind him." 

" The matches against twenty-two were not 
uncommon in the last century. In 1788 the 



THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 



55 



Hambledon Club played two-and-twenty at Cold 
Ash Hill. 'Drawing' between leg and wicket is 
not a new invention. Old Small, (b. 1737, d. 
1826,) was famous for the draw, and, to increase 
his facility he changed the crooked bat of his day 
for a straight bat. There was some fine cutting 
before Saunders' day. Harry Walker was the first, 
I believe, who brought cutting to perfection. The 
next genuine cutter — for they were very scarce (T 
never called mine cutting, not like that of Saun- 
ders at least) — was Robinson. Walker and Ro- 
binson would wait for the ball till all but past the 
wicket, and then cut with great force. Others 
made good Off-hits, but did not hit late enough for 
a good Cut. I would never cut with slow bowling. 
I Relieve that Walker, Fennex, and myself, first 
opened the old players' eyes to what could be 
done with the bat; Walker by cutting, and 
Fennex and I by forward play : but all improve- 
ment was owing to David Harris's bowling. His 
bowing rose almost perpendicular: it was once 
proncunced a jerk ; it was altogether most extraor- 
dinary. — For thirteen years I averaged forty-three 
a matoh, though frequently I had only one innings; 
but _ never could half play unless runs were 
really wanted." 



E 4 



56 



THE CRICKET FIELD, 



CHAP. IV. 

CBICKET GENERALLY ESTABLISHED AS A NATIONAL GAME 
BY THE END OF THE LAST CENTURY. 

Little is recorded of the Hambledon Club after 
the year 1786. It broke up when Old Nyren left 
it, in 1791 ; though, in this last year, the true 
old Hambledon Eleven all but beat twenty-two of 
Middlesex at Lord's. Their cricket-ground on 
Broadhalfpenny Down, in Hampshire, was so far 
removed from the many noblemen and gentlemen 
who had seen and admired the severe bowling of 
David Harris, the brilliant hitting of Beldbam, 
and the interminable defence of the Walkers, that 
these worthies soon found a more genial sphere 
for their energies on the grounds of Kent, Surrey, 
and Middlesex. Still, though the land was de- 
serted, the men survived ; and imparted a know- 
ledge of their craft to gentles and simples far and 
near. 

Most gladly would we chronicle that these 
good men and true were actuated by a great and 
a patriotic spirit, to diffuse an aid to civilisation 
- — for such our game claims to be — amonsrfcheir 



HAMBLEDONIANS DISPERSED. 



57 



wonder-stricken fellow-countrymen; but, in truth, 
we confess that " reaping golden opinions " and 
coins, " from all kinds of men," as well as that 
indescribable tumult and those joyous emotions 
which attend the ball, vigorously propelled or 
heroically stopped, while hundreds of voices shout 
applause, — that such stirring motives, more power- 
ful far with vain-glorious man than any "dissolv- 
ing views" of abstract virtue, tended to the migra- 
tion of the pride of Hambledon. Still, doubtful 
though the motive, certain is the fact, that the 
old Hambledon players did carry their bats and 
stumps out of Hampshire into the adjoining coun- 
ties, and gradually, like all great commanders, 
taught their adversaries to conquer too. In some 
instances, as with Lord Winchelsea, Mr. Amherst, 
and others, noblemen combined the utile dulci, 
pleasure and business, and retained a great player 
as a keeper or a bailiff, as Martingell once was 
engaged by Earl Ducie. In other instances, the 
play of the summer led to employment through 
the winter ; or else these busy bees lived on the 
sweets of their sunshine toil, enjoying otium cum 
dignitate — that is, living like gentlemen, with 
nothing to do. 

This accounts for our finding these Hampshire 
men playing Kent matches ; being, like a learned 
Lord in Punch's picture, "naturalised every- 
where," or " citizens of the world. " 



58 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Let us trace these Hambledonians in all their 
contests, from the date mentioned (1786 to 1800), 
the eventful period of the French Revolution and 
Nelson's victories ; and let us see how the Bank 
stopping payment, the mutiny of the fleet, and the 
threatened invasion, put together, did not prevent 
balls from flying over the tented field, in a far 
more innocent and rational way on this, than on 
the other side, of the water. 

Now, what were the matches in the last cen- 
tury — " eleven gentlemen against the twelve 
Caesars ? " No ! these, though ancient names, are 
of modern times. Kent and England was as 
good an annual match in the last, as in the 
present century. The White Conduit Fields 
and the Artillery Ground supplied the place of 
Lord's, though in 1787 the name of Lord's is 
found in Bentley's matches, implying, of course, 
the old Marylebone Ground, now Dorset Square, 
under Thomas Lord, and not the present by St. 
John's Wood, more properly deserving the name 
of Dark's than Lord's. The Kentish battle- 
fields were Sevenoaks — the land of Clout, one of 
the original makers of cricket-balls, — Coxheath, 
Dandelion Fields, in the Isle of Thanet, and 
Cobham Park ; also Dartford Brent and Pennen- 
den Heath : there is also early mention of Graves- 
end, Rochester, and Woolwich. 

Next in importance to the Kent matches were 



SURREY. HAMPSHIRE. 



59 



those of Hampshire and of Surrey, with each of 
which counties indifferently the Hambledon men 
used to play. For it must not be supposed that 
the whole county of Surrey put forth a crop of 
stumps and wickets all at once: we have already 
said that malt and hops and cricket have ever 
gone together. Two parishes in Surrey, adjoining 
Hants, won the original laurels for their county ; 
parishes in the immediate vicinity of the Farn- 
ham hop country. The Holt, near Farnham, and 
Moulsey Hurst, were the Surrey grounds. The 
match might truly have been called " Farnham's 
hop-gatherers v, those of Kent." The former, 
aided occasionally by men who drank the ale of 
Alton, just as Burton- on-Trent, life-sustainer to 
our Indian empire, sends forth its giants, refreshed 
with bitter ale, to defend the honour of the neigh- 
bouring towns and counties. The men of Hamp- 
shire, after Broadhalfpenny was abandoned to 
docks and thistles, pitched their tents generally 
either upon Windmill Downs or upon Stoke 
Downs; and once they played a match against 
T. Assheton Smith, whose mantle has descended 
on a worthy representative, whether on the level 
turf or by the cover side. Albeit, when that gen- 
tleman has a " meet " (as occasionally advertised) 
at Hambledon, he must unconsciously avoid the 
spot where "titch and turn" — the Hampshire cry 
— did once exhilarate the famous James Aylward, 



60 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



t 

among others, as he astonished the Farnham wag- 
goner, by continuing one and the same innings as 
the man drove up on the Tuesday afternoon and 
down on the Wednesday morning ! This match 
was played at Andover, and the surnames of most 
of the Eleven may be read on the tombstones 
(with the best of characters) in Andover Church- 
yard. Bourne Paddock, Earl Darnley's estate, 
and Burley Park, in Rutlandshire, constituted 
often the debateable ground in their respective , 
counties. Earl Darnley, as well as Sir Horace I 
Mann and Earl Winchelsea, Mr. Paulet and Mr. 
East, lent their names and patronage to Elevens ; 
sometimes in the places mentioned, sometimes at 
Lord's, and sometimes at Perriam Downs, near 
Luggershal, in Wiltshire. 

Middlesex also, exclusively of the Marylebone 
Club, had its Eleven in these days ; or, we should 
say, its twenty-two, for that was the number then 
required to stand the disciplined forces of Hamp- 
shire, Kent, or England. And this reminds us of 
an " Uxbridge ground," where Middlesex played 
and lost ; also, of " Hornchurch, Essex," where 
Essex, in 1791, was sufficiently advanced to win 
against Marylebone, an occasion memorable, be- 
cause Lord Frederick Beauclerk there played 
nearly his first recorded match, making scarce any 
runs, but bowling four wickets. Lord Frederick's 
first match was at Lord's, 2 nd J une, 1791. " There 



HAEROW. THE OLD ETONIANS. 61 



was also/' writes the Hon. K. Grimston, " ' the 
Bowling-green ' at Harrow-on-the-Hill, where 
the school played : Richardson, who subsequently 
became Mr. Justice Richardson, was the captain 
of the School Eleven in 1782." 

Already, in 1790, the game was spreading 
northwards, or, rather, proofs exist that it had long 
before struck far and wide its roots and branches 

i in northern latitudes ; and also that it was a game 
as popular with the men of labour as the men 
of leisure, and therefore incontestably of home 
growth : no mere exotic, or importation of the 
favoured few, can cricket be, if, like its namesake, 
it is found 66 a household word " with those whom 
Burns aptly calls "the many-aproned sons of 
mechanical life." 

In 1791 Eton, that is, the old Etonians, played 

I Marylebone, four players given on either side; 
and all true Etonians will thank us for informing 

• them, not only that the seven Etonians were more 
1 than a match for their adversaries, but also that 
I this match proves that Eton had, at that early 
- date, the honour of sending forth the most distin- 
guished amateurs of the day ; for Lord Winchel- 

• sea, Hon. H. Fitzroy, Earl Darnley, Hon. E. 
I Bligh, C. Anguish, Assheton Smith — good men 

and true — were Etonians all. This match was 
; played in Burley Park, Rutlandshire. On the fol- 
lowing day, June 25th, 1791, the Marylebone 



62 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



played eleven yeomen and artisans of Leicester ; 
and though the Leicestrians cut a sorry figure, 
still the fact that the Midland Counties practised 
cricket sixty years ago is worth recording. Peter 
Heward, of Leicester, a famous wicket-keeper, of 
twenty years since, told me of a trial match in 
which he saw his father, quite an old man, with 
another veteran of his own standing, quickly put 
out with the old-fashioned slow bowling a really 
good Eleven for some twenty runs — good, that 
is, against the modern style of bowling ; and cricket 
was not a new game in this old man's early days 
(say 1780) about Leicester and Nottingham, as 
the score in page 41. alone would prove; for such 
a game as cricket, evidently of gradual develop- 
ment, must have been played in some primitive 
form many a long year before the date of 1775, in 
which it had excited sufficient interest, and was 
itself sufficiently matured in form, to show the two 
Elevens of Sheffield and of Nottingham. Add 
to this, what we have already mentioned, a rude 
form of cricket as far north as Angus and Lothian 
in 1700, and we can hardly doubt that cricket was 
known as early in the Midland as in the Southern 
Counties. The men of Nottingham — land of 
Clarke, Barker, and Eedgate — next month, in 
the same year (1791) threw down the gauntlet, 
and shared the same fate ; and next day the 
Marylebone, " adding," in a cricketing sense, "in- 



TILLAGE PLAY. 



63 



suit unto injury/' played twenty-two of them, 
and won by thirteen runs. 

In 1790, the shopocracy of Brighton had also 
an Eleven; and Sussex and Surrey, in 1792, sent 
an eleven against England to Lord's, who scored 
in one innings 453 runs, the largest score on 
record, save that of Epsom in 1815 — 476 in one 
innings ! " M. C. C. v. twenty-two of Notting- 
ham," we now find an annual match ; and also 
" M. C. C. v. Brighton," which becomes at once 
worthy of the fame that Sussex long has borne. 
In 1793, the old Westminster men all but beat 
the old Etonians : and Essex and Herts, too near 
not to emulate the fame of Kent and Surrey, were 
content, like second-rate performers, to have, 
though playing twenty-two, one Benefit between 
them, in the shape of defeat in one innings from 
England. And here we are reminded by two old 
players, a Kent and an Essex man, that, being 
schoolboys in 1785, they can respectively testify 
that, both in Kent and in Essex, cricket appeared 
to them more of a village game than they have 
ever seen it of late years. " There was a cricket- 
bat behind the door, or else up in the bacon rack, 
in every cottage. We heard little of clubs, except 
around London ; still the game was played by 
many or by few, in every school and village green 
in Essex and in Kent, and the field placed much 
as when with the Sidmouth I played the Teign- 



64 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



bridge Club in 1826. Mr. Whitehead was the 
great hitter of Kent ; and Frame and Small were 
names as often mentioned as Pilch and Parr by 
our boys now." And now (1793) the game had 
penetrated further West ; for eleven yeomen at 
Oldfield Bray, in Berkshire, had learned long 
enough to be able to defeat a good eleven of the 
Marylebone Club. 

In 1795, the Hon. Colonel Lennox, memorable 
for a duel with the Duke of York, fought — where 
the gallant Colonel had fought so many a less 
hostile battle — on the cricket ground at Dartford 
Brent, headed Elevens against the Earl of Win- 
chelsea ; and now, first the Marylebone eleven 
beat sixteen Oxonians on Bullingdon Green. 

In 1797, the Montpelier Club and ground 
attract our notice. The name of this club is one 
of the most ancient, and their ground a short 
distance only from the ground of Hall of Cam- 
berwell. 

SwafFham, in Norfolk, is now mentioned for 
the first time. But Norfolk lies out of the usual 
road, and is a county which, as Mr. Dickens said 
of Golden Square, before it was the residence of 
Cardinal Wiseman, " is nobody's way to or from 
any place." So, in those slow coach and pack-horse 
days, the patrons of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and 
Marylebone, who alone gave to what else were 
" airy nothing, a local habitation and a name," 



GENTLEMEN V. PLAYEES. 



65 



could not so easily extend their circuit to tHe land 
of turkeys, lithotomy, and dumplings. But it 
happened once that Lord Frederick Beauclerk was 
heard to say, his eleven should beat any three 
elevens in the county of Norfolk ; whence arose a 
challenge from the Norfolk men, whom, sure 
enough, his Lordship did beat, and that in one 
innings ; and a print, though not on pocket-hand- 
kerchiefs, was struck off to perpetuate this ho- 
nourable achievement. 

Lord F. Beauclerk was now one of the best 
players of his day ; as also were the Hon. H. and 
I. Tufton. They frequently headed a division of 
the Marylebone, or some county club, against 
Middlesex, and sometimes Hampstead and High- 
gate. 

In this year (1798) these gentlemen aforesaid 
made the first attempt at a match between the 
Gentlemen and the Players ; and on this first 
occasion the players won ; though when we men- 
tion that the Gentlemen had three players given, 
and also that T. Walker, Beldham, and Ham- 
mond were the three, certainly it was like playing 
England, " the part of England being left out by 
particular desire." 

Kent attacked England in 1798, but, being 
beaten in about half an innings, we find the 
Kentish men in 1800, though still hankering after 
the same cosmopolitan distinction, modestly accept 



66 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



the odds of nineteen, and afterwards twenty-three, 
men to twelve. 

The chief patronage, and consequently the 
chief practice, in cricket, was beyond all com- 
parison in London. There, the play was^nearly 
all professional : even the gentlemen made a pro- 
fession of it ; and therefore, though cricket was far 
more extensively spread throughout the villages 
of Kent than of Middlesex, the clubs of the me- 
tropolis figure in the score books as defying all 
competition. Professional players, we may ob- 
serve, have always a decided advantage in respect 
of judicious choice and mustering their best men. 
The best eleven on the side of the Players is 
almost always known, and can be mustered on a 
given day. Favour, friendship, and etiquette in- 
terfere but little with their election ; but the 
eleven gentlemen of England are less easy to 
muster, — 

w Linquenda Parish et domus et placens 
Uxor? — 

and they are never anything more than the best 
eleven known to the party who make the match. 
Besides, by the time an amateur is at his best, 
he has duties which bid him retire. 

Having now traced the rise and progress of the 
game from the time of its general establishment 
to the time that Beldham had shown us the full 



CRICKET IN FORMER DAYS. 



67 



powers of the bat, and Lord Frederick had (as 
Fennex always declared) formed his style upon 
Beldham's ; and since now we approach the era of 
a new school, and the forward play of Fennex, 
— which his father termed an innovation and pre- 
sumption "contrary to all experience," — till the 
same forward play was proved effectual by Lam- 
bert, and Hammond had shown that, in spite of 
wicket keepers, bowling, if uniformly slow, might 
be met and hit away at the pitch ; — now, we will 
wait to characterise, in the words of eye-witnesses, 
the heroes of the contests already mentioned. 

On " the Old Players " I may be brief ; because, 
the few old gentlemen (with one of whom I am in 
daily communication) who have heard even the 
names of the Walkers, Frame, Small, and David 
Harris, are passing away, full of years, and almost 
all the written history of the Old Players consists 
in undiscriminating scores. 

In point of style the Old Players did not play 
the steady game, with maiden overs, as at present. 
The defensive was comparatively unknown : both 
the bat and the wicket, and the style of bowling 
too, were all adapted to a short life and a merry 
one. The wooden substitute for a ball, as in Cat 
and Dog, before described, evidently implied a 
hitting, and not a stopping game, 

The Wicket, as we collect from a MS. furnished 
by an old friend to the late William Ward, Esq., 

F 2 



68 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



was, in the early days of the Hambledon Club, 
one foot high and two feet wide, consisting of 
two stumps only, with one stump laid across. 
Thus, straight balls passed between, and, what we 
now call, well pitched balls would of course rise 
over. Where, then, was the encouragement to 
block, when fortune would so often usurp the 
place of science ? And, as to the bat, look at the 
picture of cricket as played in the old Artillery 
Ground ; the bat is curved at the end like a 
hockey stick, or the handle of a spoon, and — as 
common implements usually are adapted to the 
work to be performed — you will readily believe 
that in olden time the freest hitter was the best 
batsman. The bowling was all along the ground, 
hand and eye being everything, and judgment 
nothing ; because, the art originally was to bowl 
under the bat. The wicket was too low for rising 
balls ; and the reason we hear sometimes of the 
Block-hole was, not that the block-hole originally 
denoted guard, but because between these two- 
feet-asunder stumps there was cut a hole big 
enough to contain the ball, and (as now with the 
school boy's game of rounders) the hitter was 
made out in running a notch by the ball being 
popped into this hole (whence popping crease) 
before the point of the bat could reach it. 

Did we sav Running a Notch ? unde Notch ? 
What wonder ere the days of useful knowledge, 



CRICKET IN FORMER DAYS. 69 

and Sir William Curtis's three R's, — or, reading, 
writing, and arithmetic, — that natural science 
should be evolved in a truly natural way ; what 
wonder that notches on a stick, like the notches 
in the milk-woman's tally in Hogarth's picture, 
should supply the place of those complicated 
papers of vertical columns, which subject the 
bowling, the batting, and the fielding to a pro- 
cess severely and scrupulously just, of analytical 
observation, or differential calculus ! Where now 
there sit on kitchen chairs, with ink bottle tied to 
a stump the worse for wear, Messrs. Caldecourt 
and Bayley ('tis pity two such men should ever 
not be umpires), with an uncomfortable length of 
paper on their knees, and large tin telegraphic 
letters above their heads ; and where now is Lilly- 
white's printing press, to hand down every hit as 
soon as made on twopenny cards to future gene- 
rations ; there, or in a similar position, old Frame, 
or young Small (young once: he died in 1834, 
aged eighty) might have placed a trusty yeoman 
to cut notches with his bread-and-bacon knife on 
an ashen stick. Oh! 'tis enough to make the 
Harnbledon heroes sit upright in their graves with 
astonishment to think, that in the Gentlemen and 
Players' Match, in 1850, the cricketers of old 
Sparkes' Ground, at Edinburgh, could actually 
know the score of the first innings in London, 
before the second had commenced ! 



70 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



But when we say that the old players had 
little or nothing of the defensive, we speak of the 
play before 1780, when David Harris flourished: 
for William Beldham distinctly assured us that 
the art of bowling over the bat by " length balls " 
originated with the famous David ; an assertion, 
we will venture to say, which requires a little, 
and only a little, qualification. Length bowling, 
or three-quarter balls, to use a popular, though 
exploded, expression, was introduced in David's 
time, and by him first brought to perfection. 
And what rather confirms this statement is, that 
the early bowlers were very swift bowlers, — such 
was not only David, but the famous Brett, of 
earlier date, and Frame of great renown : a more 
moderate pace resulted from the new discovery 
of a well pitched bail ball. 

The old players well understood the art of 
twisting, or bias bowling. Lambert, " the little 
farmer," says Nyren, " improved on the art, and 
puzzled the Kent men in a great match, by twist- 
ing the reverse of the usual way, — that is, from 
the off to leg stump." Tom Walker tried what 
Nyren calls the throwing-bowling, and defied all 
the players of the day to withstand this novelty ; 
but, by a council of the Hambledon Club, this 
was forbidden, and Willes, a Kent man, had all the 
praise of inventing it some twenty years later. 
In a match of the Hambledon Club in 1775, 
it was observed, at a critical point of the game 3 



MEASUREMENT OF WICKETS. 7 1 



that the ball passed three times between Small's 
two stumps without knocking off the bail ; and 
then, first, a third stump was added ; and, seeing 
that the new style of balls which rise over the 
bat rose also over the wickets, then but one 
foot high, the wicket was altered to the dimen- 
sions of 22 inches by 6, at which measure it 
remained till about 1814, when it was increased 
to 26 inches by 8, and again to its present 



1317 
1814 



178 I 



1780 



2F7WIDE 
1700 BY , 
I FT HIGH 



27 INCHES BY 8 
26 8 



22 



I FT BY 6 INCHES 



72 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



dimensions of 27 inches by 8 in 1817 ; when, as 
one inch was'added to the stumps, two inches were 
added to the width between the creases. The 
changes in the wicket are represented in the 
foregoing woodcut. In the year 1700, the runner 
was made out, not by striking off the transverse 
stump — we can hardly call it a bail — but by 
popping the ball in the hole therein represented. 

David Harris' bowling, Fennex used to say, 
introduced, or at least established and fixed, a 
steady and defensive style of batting. <c I have 
seen," said Sparkes, " seventy or eighty runs in 
an innings, though not more than eight or nine 
made at Harris's end. " Harris," said an excellent 
judge, who well remembers him, " had nearly all 
the quickness of rise and the height of delivery, 
which characterises over-hand bowling, with far 
greater straightness and precision. The ball ap- 
peared to be forced out from under his arm with 
some unaccountable jerk, so that it was delivered 
breast high. His precision exceeded anything I 
have ever seen, in so much that Tom Walker 
declared that, on one occasion, where turf was 
thin, and the colour of the soil readily appeared, 
one spot was positively uncovered by the repeated 
pitching of David's balls in the same place." 
" This bowling," said Sparkes, " compelled you 
to make the best of your reach forward ; for if 
a man let the ball pitch too near and crowd upon 



DAVID HAK&IS. 



73 



him, he very rarely could prevent a mistake, from 
the height and rapidity with which the ball cut 
up from the ground." — This account agrees with 
the well-known description of Nyren. " Harris's 
mode of delivering the ball was very singular. 
He would bring it from under his arm by a twist, 
and nearly as high as his arm-pit, and with this 
action push it, as it were, from him, How it was 
that the balls acquired the velocity they did by 
this mode of delivery, I never could comprehend,, 
His balls were very little beholden to the ground ; 
it was but a touch and up again ; and woe be to 
the man who did not get in to block them, for 
they had such a peculiar curl they would grind 
his fingers against the bat." 

And Nyren agrees with my informants in 
ascribing great improvement in batting, and he 
specifies, " particularly in stopping 35 (for the act 
of defence,, we said, was not essential to the 
batsman in the ideas of one of the old players), to 
the bowling of David Harris, and bears testimony 
to an assertion, that forward play, that is meeting 
at the pitch balls considerably short of a half 
volley, was little known to the oldest players, and 
was called into requisition chiefly by the bowling 
of David Harris. Obviously, with the primitive 
fashion of ground bowling, called sneakers, for- 
ward play could have no place, and even well- 
pitched balls, like those of Peter Stevens, alias 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Lumpy, of moderate pace might be played with 
some effect, even behind the crease ; but David 
Harris, with pace, pitch, and rapid rise combined, 
imperatively demanded a new invention, and such 
was forward play about 1800. Old Fennex, who 
died, alas ! in a Middlesex workhouse, aged eighty, 
in 1839 (had his conduct been as straightforward 
and upright as his bat, he would have known a 
better end), always declared that he was the first, 
and remained long without followers; and no 
small praise is due to the boldness and originality 
that set at nought the received maxims of his 
forefathers before he was born or thought of; 
daring to try things that, had they been ordinarily 
reasonable, would not, of course, have been ignored 
by Frame, by Purchase, nor by Small. The 
world wants such men as Fennex; men, who 
will shake off the prejudices of birth, parentage, 
and education, and boldly declare that age has 
taught them wisdom, and that the policy of their 
predecessors, however expensively stereotyped, 
must be revised and corrected and adapted to the 
demands of a more inquiring generation. " My 
father," said Fennex, " asked me how I came by 
that new play, reaching out as no one ever saw 
before/' The same style he lived to see practised, 
not elegantly, but with wonderful power and 
effect by Lambert, " a most severe and resolute 
hitter;" and Fennex also boasted that he had a 



DAVID HAKRXS, 



75 



most proficient disciple in Fuller Pilch : though 
I suspect that j as 6S poeta nascitur non jit? — that 
is, that all great performers appear to have 
brought the secret of their excellence into the 
world along with them, and are not the mere 
puppets of which others pull the strings — Fuller 
Pilch may think he rather coincided with, than 
learnt from, William Fennex. 

Now the David Harris aforesaid, who wrought 
quite a revolution in the game, changing cricket 
from a backward and a slashing to a forward and 
defensive game, and claiming higher stumps to do 
justice to his skill — this David, whose bowling 
was many years in advance of his generation, hav- 
ing all the excellence of Lilly white's high delivery., 
though free from all imputation of unfairness — 
this David rose early, and late took rest, and ate 
the bread of carefulness, before he attained such 
distinction as — in these days of railroads, Thames 
tunnels, and tubular gloves and bridges — to de- 
serve the notice of our pen. " For," said John 
Bennett, " you might have seen David practising 
at dinner time and after hours, all the winter 
through and " many a Hampshire barn," said 
Beagley, " has been heard to resound with bats 
and balls as well as threshing." 

" Nil sine magno, 
Vita labore dedit mortalibus" 

And now we must mention the men, who, at 



76 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



the end of the last century, represented the Filch, 
the Parr, the Wennian, and the Wisden of the 
present day. 

Lord Beauclerk was formed on the style of 
Beldham, whom, in brilliancy of hitting, he nearly 
resembled. The Hon. H. Bligh and Hon. H, 
Tufton were of the same school. Sir Peter 
Burrell was also a good hitter. And these were the 
most distinguished gentlemen players of the day. 
Earl Winchelsea was in every principal match, 
but rather for his patronage than his play : and 
the Hon. Col. Lennox for the same reason. 
Mr. R. Whitehead was a Kent player of great 
celebrity. But Lord F. Beauclerk was the only 
gentleman who had any claim in the last century 
to play in an All England eleven. He was also 
one of the fastest runners. Hammond was the 
great wicket-keeper ; but then the bowling was 
slow : Sparkes said he saw him catch out Robinson 
by a draw between leg and wicket. Freemantle 
was the first long stop ; but Ray the finest field in 
England ; and in those days, when the scores were 
long, fielding was of even more consideration than 
at present. Of the professional players, Beldham, 
Hammond, Tom and Harry Walker, Freemantle, 
Robinson, Fennex, J. Wells, and J. Small were 
the first chosen after Harris had passed away ; 
for, Nyren says that even Lord Beauclerk could 
hardly have seen David Harris in his prime. At 



STYLE OF THE OLD PLAYERS. 



77 



this time there was a sufficient number of players 
to maintain the credit of the left hands. On the 
10th of May, 1790, the Left-handed beat the 
Eight by thirty-nine runs. This match reveals 
that Harris and Aylward, and the three best 
Kent players, Brazier, Crawe, and Clifford, — 
Sueter, the first distinguished wicket-keeper, — 
H. Walker, and Freemantle were all left-handed : 
so also was Noah Mann. 

The above-mentioned players are quite sufficient 
to give some idea of the play of the last century. 
Sparkes is well known to the author of these 
pages as his quondam instructor. In batting he 
differed not widely from the usual style of good 
players, save that he never played forward to any 
very great extent. Playing under leg, according 
to the old fashion (we call it old-fashioned though 
Pilch adopts it), served instead of the far more 
elegant and efficient " draw." Sparkes was also 
a fair bias bowler, but of no great pace, and not 
very difficult. I remember his saying that the 
old school of slow bowling was beaten by Ham- 
mond's setting the example of running in. " Ham- 
mond," he said, " on one occasion hit back a slow 
ball to Lord F. Beauclerk with such frightful 
force that it just skimmed his Lordship's un- 
guarded head, and he had scarcely nerve to bowl 
after. Of Fennex we can also speak from our 
friend the Eev. John Mitford. Fennex was a fair 



78 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



straightforward hitter, and once as good a single- 
wicket player as any in England. His attitude 
was easy, and he played elegantly, and hit well 
from the wrist. If his bowling was any specimen 
of that of his contemporaries, they were by no 
means to be despised. His bowling was very 
swift and of high delivery, the ball cut and ground 
up with great quickness and precision. Fennex 
used to say that the men of the present day had 
little idea of what the old underhand bowling 
really could effect ; and, from the specimen which 
Fennex himself gave at sixty-five years of age, 
there appeared to be much reason in his assertion. 
Of all the players Fennex had ever seen (for some 
partiality for bygone days we must of course 
allow) none elicited his notes of admiration like 
Beldham. We cannot compare a man who played 
underhand, with those who are formed on over- 
hand, bowling. Still, there is reason to believe 
what Mr. Ward and others have told us, that 
Beldham had that genius for cricket, that wonder- 
ful eye (although it failed him very early), and 
that quickness of hand, which would have made 
him a great player in any age. 

Beldham related to us in 1838, and that with 
no little nimbleness of hand and vivacity of eye, 
while he suited the action to the word with a bat 
of his own manufacture, how he had drawn forth 
the plaudits of Lords' as he hit round and helped 



BELDHAM V. BROWNE. 



79 



on the bowling of Browne of Brighton, even 
faster than before, though the good men of 
Brighton thought that no one could stand against 
him, and Browne had thought to bowl Beldham 
off his legs. This match of Hants against 
England in 1819 Fennex was fond of describing, 
and certainly it gives some idea of what Beldham 
could do. " Osbaldeston," said Mr. Ward, " with 
his tremendously fast bowling, was defying every 
one at single wicket, and he and Lambert 
challenged Mr. E. H. Budd with three others. 
Just then I had seen Browne's sw T ift bowling, and 
a hint from me settled the match. Browne was 
engaged, and Osbaldeston w r as beaten w T ith his 
own weapons." A match was now made to give 
Browne a fair trial, and " we were having a social 
glass," said Fennex, " and talking over with 
Beldham the match of the morrow at the 6 Green 
Man,' when Browne came in, and told Beldham, 
with as much sincerity as good-humour, that he 
should soon send his stumps a-flying." " Hold 
there," said Beldham, fingering his bat, "you will 
be good enough to allow me this bit of wood, 
won't you ? " " Certainly," said Browne. " Quite 
satisfied," answered Beldham, " so to-morrow you 
shall see." " Seventy-two runs," said Fennex, — 
and the score-book attests his accuracy, — " was 
Beldham's first and only innings ;" and, Beagley 
also joined with Fennex,. and assured us, that he 



80 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



never saw a more complete triumph of a batsman 
over a bowler. Nearly every ball was cut or 
slipped away till Browne hardly dared to bowl 
within Beldham's reach. 

We desire not to qualify the praises of Beld- 
ham, but when we hear that he was unrivalled in 
elegant and brilliant hitting, and in that wonder- 
ful versatility which cut indifferently, quick as 
lightning, all round him, we cannot help remark- 
ing, that such bowling as that of Kedgate or of 
Wisden renders imperatively necessary a severe 
style of defence, and an attitude of cautious watch- 
fulness, which must render the batsman not quite 
such a picture for the artist as might be seen in 
the days of Beldham and Lord F. Beauclerk. 

So far we have traced the diffusion of the game, 
and the degrees of proficiency attained, to the 
beginning of the present century. To sum up 
the evidence, by the year 1800, cricket had be- 
come the common pastime of the common people 
in Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, and had 
been introduced into the adjoining counties ; and 
though we cannot trace its continuity beyond 
Rutlandshire and Burley Park, certainly it had 
been long: familiar to the men of Leicester and 
Nottingham as well as Sheffield ; — that, in point 
of Fielding generally, this was already as good, and 
quite as much valued in a match, as it has been 
since; while Wicket-keeping in particular had been 



PROGRESS OF THE SCIENCE. 81 



ably executed by Sueter, for he could stump off 
Brett, whose pace Nyren, acquainted as he was 
with all the bowlers to the days of Lillywhite, 
called quite of the steam-engine power, albeit no 
wicket-keeper could shine like Wenman or Box, 
except with the regularity of overhand bowling ; 
and already Bowlers had attained by bias and 
quick delivery all the excellence which underhand 
bowling admits. Still, as regards Batting, the 
very fact that the stumps remained six inches 
wide, by twenty-two inches in height, undeniably 
proves that the secret of success was limited to 
comparatively a small number of players. 



G 



82 



THE CRICKET FIELD, 



CHAP. V. 

THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY. 

Before this century was one year old, David 
Harris, Harry Walker, Purchase, Aylward, and 
Lumpy had left the stage, and John Small, in- 
stead of hitting bad balls whose stitches would 
not last a match, had learnt to make commodities 
so good that Clout's and Duke's were mere toy- 
shop in comparison. Noah Mann was the Cal- 
decourt, or umpire, of the day, and Harry Bent- 
ley also, when he did not play. Five years more 
saw nearly the last of Earl Winchelsea, Sir 
Horace Mann, Earl Darnley, and Lord Yar- 
mouth; still Surrey had a generous friend in 
Mr. Laurell, Hants in Mr. T. Smith, and Kent 
in the Honourables H. and J. Tufton. The Pavi- 
lion at Lord's, then and since 1787 on the site 
of Dorset Square, was attended by Lord Fre- 
derick Beauclerk, then a young man of four-and- 
twenty, the Honourables Colonel Bligh, Colonel 
Lennox, H. and J. Tufton, and A. Upton. Also, 
there were usually Messrs. R. Whitehead, Gr. Ley- 
cester, S. Vigne, and F. Ladbroke. These were 
the great promoters of the matches, and the first 
of the amateurs. Cricket was one of Lord By- 



BYRON. WILBERFORCE. 



83 



ron's favourite sports, and that in spite of his 
lame foot : witness the lines, — 

" Together join'd in cricket's manly toil, 
Or shared the produce of the river's spoil." 

Byron mentions in his letters that he played in 
the eleven of Harrow against Eton in 1805. The 
score is given in Lillywhite's Public-School 
Matches. 

The excellent William Wilberforce was fond 
%f cricket, and was laid up by a severe blow on 
the leg at Rothley while playing with his sons : 
he says the doctor told him a little more would 
have broken the bone. 

Cricket, we have shown, was originally classed 
among the games of the lower orders ; so we find 
the yeomen infinitely superior to the gentlemen 
even before cricket had become by any means so 
much of a profession as it is now. Tom Walker, 
Beldham, John Wells, Fennex, Hammond, Ro- 
binson, Lambert, Sparkes, H. Bentley, Bennett, 
Freemantle, were the best professionals of the 
day. For it was seven or eight years later that 
Mr. E. H. Budd, and his unequal rival, Mr. Brand, 
and his sporting friend, Osbaldeston, as also that 
fine player, E. Parry, Esq., severally appeared; 
and later still, that Mr. Ward, Howard, Beagley, 
Thumwood, Caldecourt, Slater, Flavel, Ashby, 
Searle, and Saunders, successively showed every 

G 2 



84 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



resource of bias bowling to shorten the scores, and 
of fine hitting to lengthen them. By the end of 
these twenty years, all these distinguished players 
had taught a game in w T hich the batting beat the 
bowling. " Cricket/' said Mr. Ward, " unlike 
hunting, shooting, fishing, or even yachting, 
was a sport that lasted three days ; " the wicket 
had been twice enlarged, once about 1814, and 
again in 1817 ; old Lord had tried his third, the 
present, ground ; the Legs had taught the wis- 
dom of playing rather for love than money ; slow* 
coaches had given way to fast, long whist to 
short; and ultimately Lambert, John Wells, 
Howard, and Powell, handed over the ball to 
Broadbridge and Lilly white. 

Such is the scene, the characters, and the per- 
formance. " Matches in those days were more 
numerously attended than now," said Mr. Ward : 
the old game was more attractive to spectators, 
because more busy, than the new. Tom Lord's 
flag was the well known telegraph that brought 
him in from three to four thousand sixpences 
at a match. John Goldham, the octogenarian 
inspector of Billingsgate, has seen the Duke 
of York and his adversary, the Honourable 
Colonel Lennox, in the same game ? and had 
the honour of playing with both, and the Prince 
Kegent, too, in the White Conduit Fields, 
on which spot Mr. Goldham built his present 



ROYAL AND NOBLE PATRONS. 85 

house. For the Prince was a great lover of the 
game, and caused the " Prince's Cricket Ground" 
to be formed at Brighton. The late Lord Barry- 
more, killed by the accidental discharge of a 
blunderbuss in his phaeton, was an enthusiastic 
cricketer. The Duke of Richmond, when Colonel 
Lennox, a nobleman whose life and spirits and 
genial generous nature made him beloved by all, 
exulted in this as in all athletic sports : the bite 
of a fox killed him. Then, as you drive through 
Russell Square^ behold the statue of another 
patron, the noble-born and noble-minded Duke of 
Bedford ; and in Dorset Square, the site of old 
Lord's Ground, you may muse and fancy you see, 
where now is some "modest mansion," the identical 
mark called the " Duke's strike," which long re- 
corded a hit, 132 yards in the air, from the once 
famous bat of Alexander, late Duke of Hamilton. 
Great matches in those days, as in these, cost 
money. Six guineas if they won and four if they 
lost, was the player's fee ; or, five and three if they 
lived in town. So, as every match cost some 
seventy pounds, over the fire-place at Lord's you 
would see a Subscription List for Surrey against 
England, or for England against Kent, as the case 
might be, and find notices of each interesting 
match at Brookes's and other clubs. 

This custom of advertising cricket matches is 
of very ancient date. For, in the " British Cham 

G 3 



86 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



pion" of Sep. 8. 1743, a writer complains that 
though " noblemen, gentlemen, and clergymen 
may divert themselves as they think fit," and 
though he <c cannot dispute their privilege to make 
butchers, cobblers, or tinkers their companions," 
he very much doubts u whether they have any 
right to invite thousands of people to be spectators 
of their agility." For, "it draws numbers of 
people from their employment to the ruin of their 
families. It is a most notorious breach of the 
laws — ■ the advertisements most impudently recit- 
ing that great sums are laid." And, in the year 
following (1744), as we read in the " London Ma- 
gazine," Kent beat all England in the Artillery 
Ground, in the presence of " their Royal High- 
nesses the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cum- 
berland, the Duke of Richmond, Admiral Vernon, 
and many other persons of distinction. How 
pleasing to reflect that those sunny holidays we 
enjoy at Lord's have been enjoyed by the people 
for more than a century past ! 

But what were the famous cricket Counties in 
these twenty years ? The glory of Kent had for 
a while departed. Time was when Kent could 
challenge England man for man ; but now, only 
with such odds as twenty-three to twelve ! As to 
the wide extension of cricket, it advanced but 
slowly then compared with recent times. A small 
circle round London woiild still comprise all the 



MR. WARD'S LONGEST SCORE, 87 

finest players. It was not till 1820 that Norfolk, 
forgetting its three Elevens beaten by Lord Frede- 
rick, again played Marylebone ; and, though three 
gentlemen were given and Fuller Pilch played 
— then a lad of seventeen years — -Norfolk lost by 
417 runs, including Mr. Ward's longest score on 
record, — 278. u But he was missed," said Mr. 
Budd, " the easiest possible catch before he had 
scored thirty." Still it was a great achievement ; 
and Mr. Morse preserves, as a relic, the identical 
ball, and the bat which hit that ball about, a trusty 
friend that served its owner fifty years ! Kenning- 
ton Oval, perhaps, was then all docks and thistles. 
Surrey still stood first of cricket counties, and 
Mr. Laurell — Robinson was his keeper ; an awful 
man for poachers, 6 feet 1 inch, and 16 stone, and 
strong in proportion — most generous of supporters, 
was not slow to give orders on old Thomas Lord 
for golden guineas, when a Surrey man, by catch 
or innings, had elicited applause. Of the same 
high order were Sir J. Cope of Bramshill Park, 
and Mr. Barnett, the banker, promoter of the B. 
matches ; the Hon. D. Kinnaird, and, last not least, 
Mr. W. Ward, who by purchase of a lease saved 
Lord's from building ground ; an act of generosity 
in which he imitated the good old Duke of 
Dorset, w4io, said Mr. Budd, " gave the ground 
called the Vine, at Sevenoaks, by a deed of trust, 
for the use of cricketers for ever." 

G 4 



88 



THE CKICKET FIELD. 



The good men of Surrey, in 1800, monopolised 
nearly all the play of England. Lord Frederick 
Beauclerk and Hammond were the only All Eng- 
land players who were not Surrey men. 

Kent had then some civil contests — petty wars 
of single clans — but no county match ; and their 
great friend R. Whitehead, Esq., depended on 
the M. C. C. for his finest games. The game had 
become a profession : a science to the gentlemen, 
and an art or handicraft to the players; and 
Farnham found in London the best market for 
its cricket, as for its hops. The best Kent play 
was displayed at Rochester, and yet more at 
Woolwich ; but chiefly among our officers, whose 
bats were bought in London, not at Sevenoaks. 
These games reflected none such honour to the 
county as when the Earls of Thanet and of Darnley 
brought their own tenantry to Lord's or Dartford 
Brent, armed with the native willow wood of 
Kent. So, the Honourables H. and A. Tufton 
were obliged to yield to the altered times, and 
play two-and-twenty men where their noble 
father, the Earl of Thanet, had won with his eleven. 
" Thirteen to twenty-three was the number we 
enjoyed," said Sparkes, " for with thirteen good 
men well placed, and the bowling good, we did 
not want their twenty-three. A third man On, 
and a forward point, or kind of middle wicket, 
with slow bowling, or an extra slip with fast, 



THE HOMERTON CLUB. 



89 



made a very strong field: the Kent men were 
sometimes regularly pounded by our fielding." 

In 1805 we find a curious match : the a twelve 
best against twenty-three next best." Lord Fred- 
erick was the only amateur among the " best"; but 
Barton, one of the "next best" among the latter, 
scored 87 ; not out. Mr. Budd first appeared 
at Lord's in 1802 as a boy: he reappeared in 
1808, and was at once among the longest scorers. 

The Homerton Club also furnished an annual 
match : still all within the sound of Bow bells. 
" To forget Homerton," said Mr. Ward, " were 
to ignore Mr. Vigne, our wicket-keeper, but one 
of very moderate powers. Hammond was the 
best we ever had. Hammond played till his six- 
tieth year ; but Browne and Osbaldeston put all 
wicket-keeping to the rout. Hammond's great 
success was in the days of slow bowling. John 
Wells and Howard were our two best fast bowl- 
ers, though Powell was very true. Osbaldeston 
beat his side with byes and slips — thirty-two byes 
in the B. match." Few men could hit him before 
wicket ; whence the many single-wicket matches 
he played ; but Mr. Ward put an end to his reign 
by finding out Browne of Brighton. Beagley 
said of Browne, as the players now say of Mr. 
Fellows, they had no objection to him when the 
ground was smooth. 

The Homerton Club also boasted of Mr. Lad- 



90 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



broke, one of the great promoters of matches, as 
well as the late Mr. Aislabie, always fond of the 
game, but all his life " too big to play," — the re- 
mark by Lord Frederick of Mr. Ward, which, 
being repeated, did no little to develop the latent 
powers of that most efficient player. 

The Montpelier Club, also, with men given, 
annually played Marylebone. 

Lord Frederick, in 1803, gave a little variety 
to the matches by leading against Marylebone ten 
men of Leicester and Nottingham, including the 
two Warsops. t€ T. Warsop," said Clarke, " was 
one of the best bowlers I ever knew." Clarke 
has also a high opinion of Lambert, from whom, 
he says, he learnt more of the game than from 
any other man. 

Lambert's bowling was like Mr. Budd's, against 
which I have often played : a high underhand de- 
livery, slow, but rising very high, very accurately 
pitched, and turning in from leg stump. " About 
the year 1818, Lambert and I," said Mr. Budd, 
sc attained to a kind of round-armed delivery 
(described as Clarke's), by which we rose de- 
cidedly superior to all the batsmen of the day. 
Mr. Ward could not play it, but he headed a 
party against us, and our new bowling was ig- 
nored." Tom Walker and Lord Frederick were 
of the tediously slow school ; Lambert and Budd 
were several degrees faster. Howard and John 
Wells were the fast underhand bowlers. 



MR. BUDD AND LORD F. BEAUCLERK. 91 



Lord Frederick was a very successful bowler, 
and inspired great confidence as a general: his 
bowling was at last beaten by men running into 
him. Sparkes mentioned another player who 
brought very slow bowling to perfection, and was 
beaten in the same way. Beldham thought Mr. 
Budd's bowling better than Lord Frederick's ; 
Beagley said the same. 

His Lordship is generally supposed to have 
been the best amateur of his day ; so said Calde- 
court ; also Beagley, who observed his Lordship 
had the best head and was most valuable as a 
general. Otherwise, this is an assertion hard to 
reconcile with acknowledged facts ; for, first, Mr. 
Budd made the best average, though usually placed 
against Lambert's bowling, and playing almost 
exclusively in the great matches. Mr. Budd was 
a much more powerful hitter. Lord Frederick 
said, " Budd always wanted to win the game off' 
a single ball : " Beldham observed, " if Mr. Budd 
would not hit so eagerly, he would be the finest 
player in all England." When I knew him his hit- 
ting was quite safe play. Still Lord Frederick's 
was the prettier style of batting, and he had the 
character of being the most scientific player. But 
since Mr. Budd had the largest average in spite 
of his hitting, Beldham becomes a witness in his 
favour. Mr. Budd measured five feet ten inches, 
and weighed twelve stone, very clean made and 



92 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



powerful, with an eye singularly keen, and great 
natural quickness, being one of the fastest runners 
of his day. Secondly, Mr. Budd was the better 
fieldsman. He stood usually at middle wicket. 
I never saw safer hands at a catch ; and I have 
seen him very quick at stumping out. But, Lord 
Frederick could not take every part of the field : but 
was always short slip, and not one of the very best. 
And, thirdly, Mr. Budd was the better bowler. 
Mr. Budd hit well from the wrist. At Woolwich 
he hit a volley to long field for nine, though Mr. 
Parry threw it in. He also hit out of Lord's old 
ground. " Lord had said he would forfeit twenty 
guineas if any one thus proved his ground too 
small: so we all crowded around Mr. Budd," 
said Beldham, " and told him what he might 
claim. c Well then,' he said, 6 1 claim it, and give 
it among the players.' But Lord was shabby and 
would not pay." Mr. Budd is now (1854) in his 
sixty-ninth year : it is only lately that any country 
Eleven could well spare him. 

Lambert was also good at every point. In 
batting, he was a bold forward player. He stood 
with left foot a yard in advance, swaying his bat 
and body as if to attain momentum, and reaching 
forward almost to where the ball must pitch. 

Lambert's chief point was to take the ball at 
the pitch and drive it powerfully away, and, said 
Mr. Budd, "to a slow bowler his return was so 



MR. BUDD. 



93 



quick and forcible, that his whole manner was 
really intimidating to a bowler. Every one re- 
marked how completely Lambert seemed master 
of the ball. Usually the bowler appears to attack, 
and the batsman to defend ; but Lambert seemed 
always on the attack, and the bowler at his mercy, 
and " hit," said Beldham, " what no one else 
could meddle with." 

Lord Frederick was formed on Beldham's 
style. Mr. Budd's position at the wicket was 
much the same: the right foot placed as usual, 
. but the left rather behind, and nearly a yard 
apart, so that instead of the upright bat and 
figure of Pilch, the bat was drawn across, and 
the figure hung away from the wicket. This was 
a mistake. Before the ball could be played Mr. 
Budd was too good a player not to be up, like 
Pilch, and play well over his off stump. Still 
Mr. Budd explained to me that this position of 
the left foot was just where one naturally shifts 
i it to have room for a cut : so this strange attitude 
was supposed to favour their fine off hits. I say 
Off hit because the Cut did not properly belong to 
either of these players : Robinson and Saunders 
were the men to cut, — cutting balls clean away 
from the bails, though Robinson had a maimed 
hand, burnt when a child : the handle of his bat 
was grooved to fit his stunted fingers. Talking 
of his bat, the players once discovered by measure- 



94 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



ment it was beyond the statute width, and would 
not pass through the standard. So, uncere- 
moniously, a knife was produced, and the bat 
reduced to its just, rather than its fair, proportions. 
"Well," said Robinson, "FH pay you off for 
spoiling my bat : " and sure enough he did, hitting 
tremendously, and making one of his largest 
innings, which were often near a hundred runs. 

In the first twenty years of this century, Hamp- 
shire, like Kent, had lost its renown, but only be- 
cause Hambledon was now no more ; nor did Sur- 
rey and Hampshire any longer count as one. To 
confirm our assertion that Farnham produced the 
players, — for in 1808, Surrey had played and 
beaten England three times in one season, and from 
1820 to 1825 Godalmingis mentioned as the most 
powerful antagonist; but whether called Godal- 
ming or Surrey, we must not forget that the 
locality is the same — we observe, that in 1821, 
M. C. C. plays * The Three Parishes," namely, 
Godalming, Farnham, and Hartley Row ; w^hich 
parishes, after rearing the finest contemporaries of 
Beldham, could then boast a later race of players in 
Flavel, Searle, Howard, Thumwood, Mathews. 

« About this time (July 23. 1821)," said 
Beldham, "we played the Coronation Match; 
c M. C. C. against the Players of England. 5 We 
scored 278 and only six wickets down, when the 
game was given up. I was hurt and could not 



HANTS V. NOTTINGHAM. 



95 



run my notches ; still James Bland, and the other 
Legs, begged of me to take pains, for it was no 
sporting match, 6 any odds and no takers ; ' and 
they wanted to shame the gentlemen against 
wasting their (the Legs') time in the same way 
another time." 

But the day for Hampshire, as for Kent, was 
doomed to shine again. Fennex, Small, the 
Walkers, J. Wells, and Hammond, in time drop 
off from Surrey, — and about the same time (1815), 
Caldecourt, Holloway, Beagley, Thumwood, 
Shearman, Howard, Mr. Ward, and Mr. Knight, 
restore the balance of power for Hants, as after- 
wards, Broadbridge and Lillywhite for Sussex. 

"In 1817, we went," said Mr. Budd, "with 
Osbaldeston to play twenty -two of Nottingham. 
In that match Clarke played. In common with 
others I lost my money, and was greatly dis- 
appointed at the termination. One paid player 
was accused of selling, and never employed after. 
The concourse of people was very great: these 
were the days of the Luddites (rioters), and the 
magistrates warned us, that unless we would stop 
our game at seven o'clock, they could not answer 
for keeping the peace. At seven o'clock we 
stopped ; and, simultaneously, the thousands who 
lined the ground began to close in upon us. Lord 
Frederick lost nerve and was very much alarmed ; 
but I said they didn't want to hurt us. No ; 



96 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



they simply came to have a look at the eleven men 
who ventured to play two for one." — His Lordship 
broke his finger, and, batting with one hand, 
scored only eleven runs. Nine men, the largest 
number perhaps on record, Bentley marks as 
" caught by Budd." 

Just before the establishment of Mr. Will's 
roundhand bowling, and as if to prepare the way, 
Ashby came forth with an unusual bias, but no 
great pace. Sparkes bowled in the same style; 
as also, Matthews and Mr. Jenner somewhat 
later. Still the batsmen were full as powerful as 
ever, reckoning Saunders, Searle, Beagley, Messrs. 
Ward, Kingscote, Knight. Suffolk became very 
strong with Pilch, the Messrs. Blake, and others, 
of the famous Bury Club ; while Slater, Lilly- 
white, King, and the Broadbridges, raised the 
name of Midhurst and of Sussex. 

Against such batsmen every variety of under- 
hand delivery failed to maintain the balance of 
the game, till J. Broadbridge and Lillywhite, 
after many protests and discussions, succeeded in 
establishing what long was called "the Sussex 
bowling." 

" About 1820," said Mr. Budd, "at our anni- 
versary dinner (three-guinea tickets) at the 
Clarendon, Mr. Ward asked me if I had not said I 
would play any man in England at single wicket, 
without fieldsmen. An affirmative produced a 



osbaldeston's match. 



97 



match p. p. for fifty guineas. On the day- 
appointed Mr. Brand proved my opponent. He 
was a fast bowler. I went in firsts and, scoring 
seventy runs with some severe blows on the legs, 
— nankeen knees and silk stockings, and no pads 
in those days, — I consulted a friend and knocked 
down my own wicket, lest the match should last 
to the morrow, and I be unable to play. Mr. 
Brand was out without a run ! I went in again, 
and making the 70 up to 100, I once more 
knocked down my own wicket, and once more my 
opponent failed to score ! ! 

The flag was flying — the signal of a great 
match — and a large concourse were assembled ; 
and, considering Mr. Ward, a good judge, made 
the match, this is probably the most hollow victory 
on record. 

But Osbaldeston's victory was far more satis- 
factory. Lord Frederick with Beldham made a 
p. p. match with Osbaldeston and Lambert. 
" On the day named," said Budd, " I went to Lord 
Frederick, representing my friend was too ill to 
stand, and asked him to put off the match. u No ; 
play or pay," said his Lordship, quite inexorable. 
" Never mind," said Osbaldeston, " I won't 
forfeit : Lambert may beat them both ; and, if he 
does, the fifty guineas shall be his." — I asked 
Lambert how he felt. " Why," said he, " they 
are anything but safe." — His Lordship wouldn't 

H 



98 



THE CRICKET FIELD, 



hear of it. " Nonsense," he said, " you can't 
mean it." " Yes ; play or pay, my Lord, we are 
in earnest, and shall claim the stakes ! " and in 
fact Lambert did beat them both. For, to play 
such a man as Lambert, when on his mettle, was 
rather discouraging ; and " he did make desperate 
exertion," said Beldham : " once he rushed up after 
his ball, and Lord Frederick was caught so near 
the bat that he lost his temper, and said it was 
not fair play. Of course, all hearts were with 
Lambert." 

" Osbaldeston's mother sat by in her carriage, 
and enjoyed the match ; and then," said Beldham, 
" Lambert was called to the carriage and bore 
away a paper parcel: some said it was a gold 
watch, — some, bank notes. Trust Lambert to 
keep his own secrets. We were all curious, but 
no one ever knew:" — nor ever will know. In 
March, 1851, I addressed a letter to him at Rei- 
gate. Soon, a brief paragraph announced the 
death of " the once celebrated cricket player Wil- 
liam Lambert." 



SAD DOINGS. 



99 



CHAR VI. 

A DARK CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF CRICKET. 

The lovers of cricket may congratulate them- 
selves that matches, at the present day, are made 
at cricket, as at chess, rather for love and the 
honour of victory than for money. 

It is now many years since Lord's was fre- 
quented by men with book and pencil, betting as 
openly and professionally as in the ring at Epsom, 
and ready to deal in the odds with any and every 
person of speculative propensities. Far less satis- 
factory was the state of things with which Lord 
F. Beauclerk and Mr. Ward had to contend, to 
say nothing of the earlier days of the Earl of 
Winchelsea and Sir Horace Mann. As to the 
latter period, "Old Nyren" bewails its evil doings. 
He speaks of one who had " the trouble of proving 
himself a rogue," and also of " the legs of Mary- 
lebone," who tried, for once in vain, to corrupt 
some primitive specimens of Hambledon inno- 
cence. He says, also, that the grand matches of his 
day were always made for 500/. a side. Add to 
this the fact that bets were in proportion ; and that 

H 2 



100 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Jim and Joe Bland, of turf notoriety, with Dick 
Whitlom of Covent Garden, Simpson, a gaming- 
house keeper, and Toll of Esher, as regularly 
attended at a match as Crockford and Gully at 
Epsom and Ascot; and the idea that all the 
Surrey and Hampshire rustics should either want 
or resist strong temptations to sell, is not to be 
entertained for a moment. The constant habit of 
betting will take the honesty out of any man. A 
half-crown sweepstakes, or betting such odds as 
lady's long kids to gentleman's short ditto, is all 
very fair sport ; but, if a man, after years of high 
betting, can still preserve the fine edge and tone 
of honest feeling he is indeed a wonder. To bet 
on a certainty all admit is swindling. If so, to 
bet where you feel it is a certainty, must be very 
bad moral practice. 

" If gentlemen wanted to bet," said Beldham, 
" just under the pavilion sat men ready, with 
money down, to give and take the current odds : 
these were by far the best men to bet with ; because, 
if they lost, it was all in the way of business : they 
paid their money and did not grumble. Still, 
they had all sorts of tricks to make their betting 
safe. " One artifice," said Mr. Ward, " was to 
keep a player out of the way by a false report 
that his wife was dead." Then these men would 
come down to the Green Man and Still, and drink 
with us, and always said, that those who backed 



A DEEP-LAID TRAP. 



101 



us, or u the nobs/' as they called them, sold the 
matches ; and so, sir, as you are going the round 
beating up the quarters of the old players, you will 
find some to persuade you this is true. But don't 
believe it. That any gentleman in my day ever 
put himself into the power of these blacklegs, by 
selling matches, I can't credit. Still, one day, I 
thought I would try how far these tales were true. 
So, going down into Kent, with " one of high 
degree," he said to me, " Will, if this match is 
won, I lose a hundred pounds ! " " Well," said I, 
"my Lord, you and I could order that." He 
smiled as if nothing were meant, and talked of 
something else ; and, as luck would have it, he 
and I were in together, and brought up the score 
between us, though every run seemed to me like 
" a guinea out of his Lordship's pocket." 

In those days, foot races were very common. 
Lord Frederick and Mr, Budd were first-rate 
runners, and bets were freely laid. So, one day, 
old Fennex laid a trap for the gentlemen: he 
brought up, to act the part of some silly conceited 
youngster with his pockets full of money, a first- 
rate runner out of Hertfordshire. This soft young 
gentleman ran a match or two with some known 
third-rate men, and seemed to win by a neck, and 
no pace to spare. Then he calls out, " I'll run 
any man on the ground for 25/., money down." 
A match was quickly made, and money laid on 

H 3 



102 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



pretty thick on Fennex's account. Some said, 
* 6 Too bad to win of such a green young fellow !' ? 
others said, " He's old enough — serve him right." 
So the laugh w T as finely against those who were 
taken in ; " the green one" ran away like a hare ! 

" You see, sir," said one fine old man, with 
brilliant eye and quickness of movement, that 
showed his right hand had not yet forgot its 
cunning, " matches were bought, and matches 
were sold, and gentlemen who meant honestly 
lost large sums of money, till the rogues beat 
themselves at last. They overdid it ; they spoilt 
their own trade ; and, as I said to one of them, 
6 a knave and a fool makes a bad partnership ; so, 
you and yourself will never prosper.' Well, 
surely there w T as robbery enough : and, not a few 
of the great players earned money to their own 
disgrace ; but, if you'll believe me, there was not 
half the selling there was said to be. Yes, I can 
guess, sir, much as you have been talking to all 
the old players over this good stuff (pointing to 
the brandy and water I had provided), no doubt 

you have heard that B sold as bad as the 

rest. I'll tell the truth : one match up the country 
I did sell, — a match made by Mr. Osbaldeston at 
Nottingham. I had been sold out of a match 
just before, and lost 107., and happening to hear it 
I joined two others of our eleven to sell, and get 
back my money. I won 10/. exactly, and of this 



TEMPTATIONS TO SELL. 



103 



roguery no one ever suspected me ; but many was 
the time I have been blamed for selling when as 
innocent as a babe. In those davs, when so much 
money was on the matches, every man who lost his 
money would blame some one. Then, if A missed 
a catch, or B made no runs, — and where's the 
player whose hand is always in? — that man was 
called a rogue directly. So, when a man was 
doomed to lose his character and to bear all the 
smart, there was the more temptation to do like 
others, and after c the kicks ' to come in for i the 
halfpence.' But I am an old man now, and heartily 
sorry I have been ever since : because, but for that 
Nottingham match, I could have said with a clear 
conscience to a gentleman like you, that all that 
was said was false, and I never sold a match in 
my life ; but now I can't. But, if I had fifty 
sons, I would never put one of them, for all the 
games in the world, in the way of the roguery 
that I have witnessed. The temptation really was 
very great, — too great by far for any poor man 
to be exposed to, — no richer than ten shillings a 
week, let alone harvest time. — I never told you, 
sir, the way I first was brought to London. I was 
a lad of eighteen at this Hampshire village, and 
Lord Winchelsea had seen us play among our- 
selves, and watched the match with the Hamble- 
don Club on Broad-halfpenny, when I scored 
forty-three against David Harris, and ever so 

H 4 



104 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



many of the runs against David's bowling, and no 
one ever could manage David before. So, next 
year, in the month of March, I was down in the 
meadows, when a gentleman came across the field 
with Farmer Hilton: and, thought I, all in a 
minute, now this is something about cricket. 
Well, at last it was settled I was to play Hamp- 
shire against England, at London, in White- 
Conduit-Fields ground, in the month of June. 
For three months I did nothing but think about 
that match. Tom Walker was to travel up from 
this country, and I agreed to go with him, and 
found myself at last with a merry company of 
cricketers — all the men, whose names I had ever 
heard as foremost in the game — met together, 
drinking, card-playing, betting, and singing at the 
Green Man (that was the great cricketer's house), 
in Oxford Street, — no man without his wine, I 
assure you, and such suppers as three guineas a 
game to lose, and five to win (that was then the 
sum for players) could never pay for long. To go 
to London by the waggon, earn five guineas three 
or four times told, and come back with half the 
money in your pocket to the plough again, was all 
very well talking. You know what young folk 
are, sir, when they get together : mischief brews 
Stronger in large quantities : so, many spent all 
their earnings, and were soon glad to make more 
money some other way. Hundreds of pounds 



PROFESSED GAMBLERS. 



105 



were bet upon all the great matches, and other 
wagers laid on the scores of the finest players, 
and that too by men who had a book for every 
race and every match in the sporting world; 
men who lived by gambling ; and, as to honesty, 
gambling and honesty don't often go together. 
What was easier, then, than for such sharp gen- 
tlemen to mix with the players, take advantage of 
their difficulties, and say, 'your backers, my Lord 
this, and the Duke of that, sell matches and over- 
rule all your good play, so why should'nt you 
have a share of the plunder ? ' — That was their con- 
stant argument. 6 Serve them as they serve you.' — 
You have heard of Jim Bland, the turfsman, and 
his brother Joe — two nice boys. When Jemmy 
Dawson was hanged for poisoning the horse, the 
Blands never felt safe till the rope was round 
Dawson's neck: to keep him quiet, they persuaded 
him to the last hour that no one dared hang 
him ; and a certain nobleman had a reprieve in 
his pocket. Well, one day in April, Joe Bland 
traced me out in this parish, and tried his game 
on with me. 6 You may make a fortune,' he said, 
' if you will listen to me : so much for the match 
with Surrey, and so much more for the Kent 
match — ' < Stop,' said I: < Mr. Bland, you talk 
too fast ; I am rather too old for this trick ; you 
never buy the same man but once: if their lord- 
ships ever sold at all, you would peach upon 



106 



THE CEICKET FIELD. 



them if ever after they dared to win. You'll try 
me once, and then you'll have me in a line like 
him of the mill last year.' No, sir, a man was a 
slave when once he sold to these folk : ' fool and 
knave aye go together.' Still, they found fools 
enough for their purpose ; but" rogues can never 
trust each other. One day, a sad quarrel arose 
between two of them, which opened the gentlemen's 
eyes too wide to close again to those practices. 
Two very big rogues at Lord's fell a quarrelling, 
and blows were given ; a crowd drew round, and 
the gentlemen ordered them both into the pavilion. 
When the one began, 6 You had 20/. to lose the 
Kent match, bowling leg long hops and missing 
catches.' tf And you were paid to lose at S waff- 
ham.' — 'Why did that game with Surrey turn 
about — three runs to get, and you didn't make 
them ? ' Angry words come out fast ; and, when 
they are circumstantial and square with previous 
suspicions, they are proofs as strong as holy writ. 
In one single- wicket match," he continued, — "and 
those were always great matches for the sporting 
men, because usually you had first-rate men on 
each side, and their merits known, — dishonesty 
was as plain as this : just as a player was coming 
in, (John B. will confess this if you talk of the 
match,) he said to me, c You'll let me score five or 
six, for appearances, won't you, for I am not going 
to make many if I can?' 6 Yes,' I said, tf you 



FALSE PLAY ON BOTH SIDES. 



107 



rogue, you shall if I can not help it.' — But, when 
a game was all but won, and the odds heavy, and 
all one way, it was cruel to see how the fortune of 
the day then would change about. In that Kent 
match, — you can turn to it in your book (Bentley's 
scores), played 28th July, 1807, on Penenden 
Heath, — I and Lord Frederick had scored sixty- 
one, and thirty remained to win, and six of the best 
men in England went out for eleven runs. Well, 
sir, I lost some money by that match, and as 
seven of us were walking homewards to meet a 
coach, a gentleman who had backed the match 
drove by and said, c Jump up, my boys, we have 
all lost together. I need not mind if I hire a 
pair of horses extra next town, for I have lost 
money enough to pay for twenty pair or more. 5 
Well, thought I, as I rode along, you have rogues 
enough in your carriage now, sir, if the truth were 
told, I'll answer for it ; and, one of them let out 
the secret, some ten years after. But, sir, I can't 
help laughing when I tell you : once, there was a 
single-wicket match played at Lord's, and a man 
on each side was paid to lose. One was bowler, 
and the other batsman, when the game came to a 
near point. I knew their politics, the rascals, 
and saw in a minute how things stood ; and how 
I did laugh to be sure. For seven balls together, 
one would not bowl straight, and the other would 



108 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



not hit ; but at last a straight ball must come, 
and down went the wicket." 

From other information received, I could tell 
this veteran that, even in his much-repented 
Nottingham match, his was not the only side that 
had men resolved to lose. The match was sold 
for Nottingham too, and that with less success, 
for Nottingham won : an event the less difficult 
to accomplish, as Lord Frederick Beauclerk broke 
a finger in an attempt to stop an angry and furious 
throw from Shearman, whom he had scolded for 
slack play. His Lordship batted with one hand. 
Afterwards lock-jaw threatened ; and Lord Frede- 
rick was, well nigh, a victim to Cricket ! 

It is true, Clarke, who played in the match, 
thought all was fair : still, he admits, he heard 
one Nottingham man accused, on the field, by his 
own side of foul play. This confirms the evidence 
of the Rev. C. W., no slight authority in Notting- 
ham matches, who said he was cautioned before 
the match that all would not be fair. 

u This practice of selling matches," said Beld- 
ham, " produced strange things sometimes. Once, 
I remember, England was playing Surrey, and, in 
my judgment, Surrey had the best side ; still I 
found the Legs were betting seven to four against 
Surrey ! This time, they were done ; for they 
betted on the belief that some Surrey men had 
sold the match: but, Surrey then played to win." 



MR. GULLY AT LORD'S. 



109 



" Crockford used to be seen about Lord's, and 
Mr. Gully also occasionally ; but, only for the 
society of sporting men : they did not understand 
the game, and I never saw them bet. Mr. Gully 
was often talking to me about the game for one 
season ; but/' said the old man, as he smoothed 
down his smockfrock, with all the confidence in 
the world, 4C I could never put any sense into 
him ! He knew plenty about fighting, and after- 
wards of horse-racing ; but a man cannot learn 
the odds of cricket unless he is something of a 
player." 



110 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



CHAP. VII. 
BarroXoym, 

OR 

THE SCIENCE AND ART OF BATTING. 

A writer in " Blackwood " once attributed the 
success of his magazine to the careful exclusion of 
every bit of science, or reasoning, above half an 
inch long. The Cambridge Professors do not 
exclusively represent the mind of Parker's Piece ; 
so, away with the stiffness of analysis and the 
mysteries of science: the laws of dynamics might 
puzzle, and the very name of physics alarm, many 
an able-bodied cricketer ; so, invoking the genius 
of our mother tongue, let us exhibit science in its 
more palatable form. 

All the balls that can be bowled may, for all 
practical purposes, be reduced to a few simple 
classes, and plain rules given for all and each. 
There are what are called good balls, and bad 
balls. The former, good lengths, and straight, 
while puzzling to the eye ; the latter, bad lengths 
and wide, while easy to see and to hit. 

But, is not a good hand and eye quite enough, 



SCOPE FOR INSTRUCTIONS. Ill 



with a little practice, without all this theory? 
Do you ignore the Pilches and the Parrs, who 
have proved famous hitters from their own sense 
alone ? — The question is, not how many have suc- 
ceeded, but how many more have failed. Cricket 
by nature is like learning from a village dame ; it 
leaves a great deal to be uataught before the 
pupil makes a good scholar. If you have Calde- 
court's, Wisden's, or Lillywhite's instructions, viva 
voce, why not on paper also ? What, though many 
excellent musicians do not know a note, every good 
musician will bear witness that the consequence 
of Nature's teaching is, that men form a vicious 
habit almost impossible to correct, a lasting bar to 
brilliant execution. And why ? — because the 
piano or the violin leaves no dexterity or rapidity 
to spare. The muscles act freely in one way only, 
in every other way with loss of power. So w T ith 
batting. A good ball requires all the power and 
energy of the man ! And, as with riding, driving, 
rowing, or every other exercise, it depends on a 
certain form, attitude, or position, whether this 
power be forthcoming or not. 

The scope for useful instructions for forming 
good habits of hitting before their place is pre- 
occupied with bad — for, " there's the rub " — is 
very great indeed. If Pilch, and Clarke, and 
Lillywhite, averaging fifty years each, are still 
indifferent to pace in bowling, — and if Mr. Ward, 



112 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



as late as 1844, scored forty against Mr, Kir- 
wan 9 s swiftest bowlings while some of the most 
active young men, of long experience in cricket, 
are wholly unequal to the task ; then, it is un- 
deniable that a batsman may form a certain in- 
valuable habit, which youth and strength cannot 
always give, nor age and inactivity entirely take 
away. 

The following are simple rules for forming 
correct habits of play ; for adding the judgment 
of the veteran to the activity of youth, or putting 
an old head on young shoulders, and teaching the 
said young shoulders not to get into each other's 
way. 

All balls that can be bowled are reducible to 
" length balls " and " not lengths." 

Not lengths, are the toss, the tice, the half 
volley, the long hop, and ground balls. 

These are not length balls, not pitched at that 
critical length which puzzles the judgment as to 
whether to play forward or back, as will presently 
be explained. These are all " bad balls ; n and 
among good players considered certain hits ; though, 
from the delusive confidence they inspire, some- 
times they are bowled with success against even 
the best of players. 

These not lengths, therefore, being the easiest to 
play, as requiring only hand and eye, but little 
judgment, are the best for a beginner to practise ; 



POSITION. 



113 



so, we will set the tyro in a proper position to play 
them with certainty and effect. 

Position. — Look at any professional play er, 
— observe how he stands and holds his bat. 
Much, very much, depends on position, — so look 
at the figure of Pilch. This is substantially the 
attitude of every good batsman. Some think he 
should bend the right knee a little ; but an anato- 
mist reminds me that it is when the limb is 
straight that the muscles are relaxed, and most 
ready for sudden action. Various as attitudes 
appear to the casual observer, all coincide in the 
main points marked in the figure of Pilch in our 
frontispiece. For, all good players, — 

1st. Stand with the right foot just within the 
line. Further in, would limit the reach and en- 
danger the wicket : further out, would endanger 
stumping. 

2dly. All divide their weight between their 
two feet, though making the right leg more the 
pillar and support, the left being rather lightly 
placed, and more ready to move on, off, or forward, 
and this we will call the Balance-foot. 

3rdly. All stand as close as they can without 
being before the wicket ; otherwise, the bat cannot 
be upright, nor can the eye command a line from 
the bowler's hand. 

4thly. All stand at guard as upright as is easy 
to them. We say easy, not to forbid a slight stoop, 

I 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



— the attitude of extreme caution. Height is a 
great advantage, 66 and a big man/' says Dakin, 
" is foolish to make himself into a little man." 
If the eye is low, you cannot have the commanding 
sight, nor, as players say, " see as much of the 
game," as if you hold up your head, and look well 
at the bowler. 

5thly. All stand easy, and hold the bat lightly, 
yet firmly, in their hands. However rigid your 
muscles, you must relax them, as already ob- 
served, before you can start into action. Rossi, 
the sculptor, made a beautiful marble statue of a 
batsman at guard, for the late Mr. William Ward, 
w T ho said, " You are no cricketer, Mr. Sculptor ; 
the wrists are too rigid, and hands too much 
clenched." 

After standing at guard in the attitude of Pilch, 
Jiff. 1. shows the bat taken up ready for action. 
But, at what moment are you to raise your bat ? 
Caldecourt teaches, and some very good players 
observe, the habit of not raising the bat till they 
have seen the pitch of the ball. This is said 
to tend both to safety and system in play ; but a 
first-rate player, who has already attained to a 
right system, should aspire to more power and 
freedom, and rise into the attitude of Jiff. 1. as 
soon as the ball is out of the bowler's hand. 
Good players often begin an innings with their 
bat down, and raise it as they gain confidence. 



SIMPLE RULES. 



115 



Fig. 1. 




Preparing for Action. 



Meet the ball ivith as full a bat as the case 
admits. Consider the full force of this rule. 

1st. Meet the ball. The bat must strike the 
ball, not the ball the bat. Even if you block, you 
can block hard, and the wrists may do a little ; so 5 

* The toes are too much before Wicket, and foot hardly 
within the crease. Foreshortening suits our illustration 
better than artistic effect. 



116 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



with a good player this rule admits of no ex- 
ception. Young players must not think I recom- 
mend a flourish, but an exact movement of the bat 
at the latest possible instant. In playing back to 
a bail ball, a good player meets the ball, and plays 
it with a resolute movement of arm and wrist. 
Pilch is not caught in the attitude of what some 
call Hanging guard, letting the ball hit his bat 
dead, once in a season. 

2dly. With a full bat. A good player has never 
less wood than 21 inches by 4^ inches before his 
wicket as he plays the ball, a bad player has 
rarely more than a bat's width alone. Remember 
the old rule, to keep the left shoulder over the 
ball, and left elbow well up. Good players must 
avoid doing this in excess ; for, some play from leg 
to off, across the line of the ball^ in their over care 
to keep the shoulder over it. Fix a bat by pegs in 
the ground, and try to bowl the wicket down., and 
you will perceive what an unpromising antagonist 
this simple rule creates. I like to see a bat, as 
the ball is coming, hang perpendicular as a pendu- 
lum from the player's wrists. The best compli- 
ment ever paid me was this : — " Whether you play 
forward or back, hitting or stopping, the wicket 
is always covered to the full measure of your 
bat." So said al friend well known in North 
Devon, whose effective bowling, combined with 



STRAIGHT PLAT. 



117 



his name, has so often provoked the pun of " the 
falls of the Clyde." 

3dly. As full a bat as the case admits : yon 
cannot present a full bat to any but a straight 
ball. A bat brought forward from the centre 
stump to a ball Off or to leg, must be minutely 
oblique and form an angle sufficient to make Off 
or On hits. 

Herein then consists the great excellence of 
batting, in presenting the largest possible face of 
the bat to the ball While the bat is descending 
on the ball, the ball may rise or turn, to say 
nothing of the liability of the hand to miss, and 
then the good player has always half the width 
of his bat, besides its height, to cover the deviation; 
whereas, the cross player is far more likely to 
miss, from the least inaccuracy of hand and eye, 
or twist of the ball. 

And, would you bring a full bat even to a toss ? 
Would you not cut it to the Off or hit across to 
the On? 

This question tries my rule very hard certainly ; 
but though nothing less than a hit from a toss can 
satisfy a good player, still I have seen the most 
brilliant hitters, when a little out of practice, lose 
their wicket, or hit a catch from the edge of the 
bat, by this common custom of hitting across 
even to a toss or long hop. 



118 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



To hit tosses is good practice, requiring good 
time and quick wrist play. If you see a man 
play stiff, and " up in a heap," a swift toss is 
worth trying. Bowlers should practise both toss 
and tice. 

We remember Wenman playing well against 
fine bowling ; when an underhand bowler was put 
on, who bowled him Avith a toss, fourth ball. 

To play tosses, and ground balls, and hops, and 
every variety of loose bowling, by the rigid rules 
of straight and upright play, is a principle, the neg- 
lect of which has often given the old hands a laugh 
at the young ones. Often have I been amused 
to see the wonder and disappointment occasioned, 
when some noted member of a University Eleven, 
or the Marylebone Club, from whom all expected 
of course the most tremendous hitting " off mere 
underhand bowling," has been easily disposed of 
by a toss or a ground ball, yclept a 6S sneak." 

A fast ball to the middle stump, however badly 
bowled, no player can afford to treat too easily. 
A ball that grounds more than once may turn 
more than once ; and, the bat though properly 
4| inches wide, is considerably reduced when used 
across wicket ; so never hit across wicket. To turn 
to loose bowling, and hit from leg stump square 
to the on side with full swing of the body, is very 
gratifying and very effective ; and, perhaps you 
may hit over the tent, or, as I once saw, into a 



BAD BOWLING OFTEN EFFECTIVE. 



119 



neighbour's carriage; but, while the natives are 
marvel-stricken, Caldecourt will shake his head, 
and inwardly grieve at folly so triumphant. 

This reminds me of a memorable match in 
1834, of Oxford against Cowley, the village 
which fostered those useful members of university 
society; who, during the summer term, bowl at six- 
pences on stumps sometimes eight hours a day, 
and have strength enough left at the end to win 
one sixpence more. 

The Oxonians, knowing the ground or knowing 
their bowlers, scored above 200 runs in their first 
innings. Then Cowley grew wiser; and even 
now a Cowley man will tell the tale, how they 
put on one Tailor Humphreys to bowl twisting 
underhand sneaks, at which the Oxonians laughed, 
and called it " no cricket ;" but it actually levelled 
their wickets for fewer runs than were made 
against Bayley and Cobbett the following week. 
The Oxonians, too eager to score, and thinking 
it so easy, hit across and did not play their usual 
game. 

Never laugh at bowling that takes wickets. 
Bowling that is bad, often for that very reason 
meets with batting that is worse. Nothing shows 
a thorough player more than playing with caution 
even badly pitched underhand bowling. 

One of the best judges of the game I ever knew 
was once offered by a fine hitter a bet that he 

i t 



120 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



could not with his underhand bowling make him 
"give a chance" in half an hour. 

" Then you know nothing of the game," was 
the reply ; " I would bowl you nothing but Off 
tosses, which you must cut ; you would not cut 
those correctly for half an hour, for you could 
not use a straight bat once. Your bet ought to 
be,- — no chance before so many runs." 

Peter Heward, an excellent wicket-keeper of 
Leicester, — of the same day as Henry Davis, one 
of the finest and most graceful hitters ever seen, 
as Dakin, or any midland player will attest, — once 
observed to me, " Players are apt to forget that a 
bad bowler may bowl one or two balls as well as 
the best ; so, to make a good average, you must 
always play the same guarded and steady game, 
and take care especially when late in the season." 
"Why late in the season?" "Because the 
ground is damp and heavy — it takes the spring 
out of good bowling, and gives fast underhand 
bowling as many twists as it has hops, besides 
making it hang on the ground. This game is 
hardly worth playing it is true ; but a man is but 
half a player who is only prepared for true 
ground." " We do not play cricket," he con- 
tinued, "on billiard tables; wind and weather, 
and the state of the turf make all the difference. 
So, if you play to win, play the game that will 
carry you through ; and that is a straight and up- 



HITTING HALF-VOLLEYS. 



121 



right game ; use your eyes well ; play not at the 
pitch, nor by the length, but always (what few 
men do) at the ball itself, and never hit or c pull 
the ball ' across wicket." 

Next as to the half -volley. This is the most 
delightful of all balls to hit, because it takes the 
right part of the bat, with all the quickness of its 
rise or rebound. Any player will show you what 
a half-volley is, and I presume that every reader 
has some living lexicon to explain common terms. 
A half-volley, then, is very generally hit in the 
air, soaring far above every fieldsman's head ; and 
to know the power of the bat, every hitter should 
learn so to hit at pleasure. Though, as a rule, 
high hits make a low average. But I am now to 
speak only of hitting half-volleys along the 
ground. 

Every time you play forcibly at the pitch of a 
ball you have more or less of the half-volley ; so 
this is a material point in batting. The whole 
secret consists partly in timing your hit well, and 
partly in taking the ball at the right part of the 
rise, so as to play the ball down without wasting 
its force against the ground. 

Every player thinks he can hit a half-volley 
along the ground ; but if once you see it done by 
a really brilliant hitter, you will soon understand 
that such hitting admits of many degrees of per- 
fection. In forward play, or driving, fine hitters 



122 THE CRICKET FIELD. 

seem as if they felt the ball on the bat, and sprung 
it away with an elastic impulse ; and, in the more 
forcible hits, a ball from one of the All England 
batsmen appears not so much like a hit as a shot 
from the bat : for, when a ball is hit in the swiftest 
part of the bat's whirl, and with that part of the 
bat that gives the greatest force with the least jar, 
the ball appears to offer no resistance; its mo- 
mentum is annihilated by the whirl of the bat, 
and the two-and-twenty fieldsmen find to their 
surprise how little ground a fieldsman can cover 
against true and accurate hitting. 

Clean hitting requires a loose arm, the bat held 
firmly, but not clutched in the hand till the 
moment of hitting ; clumsy gloves are a sad hin- 
drance, the hit is not half so crisp and smart. The 
bat must be brought forward not only by the free 
swing of the arm working well from the shoulder, 
but also by the wrist. (Refer to fig. 1. p. 115.) 
Here is the bat ready thrown back, and wrists 
proportionally bent ; from that position a hit is 
always assisted by wrist as well as arm. The 
effect of the wrist alone, slight as its power appears, 
is very material in hitting ; this probably arises 
from the greater precision and better time in 
which a wrist hit is commonly made. 

As to hard hitting, if two men have equal skill, 
the stronger man will send the ball farthest. 
Many slight men drive a ball nearly as far as 



THEORY OF HITTING. 



123 



larger men, because they exert their force in a 
more skilful manner. We have seen a man six 
feet three inches in height, and of power in 
proportion, hit a ball tossed to him — not once or 
twice, but repeatedly — a hundred yards or more 
in the air. This, perhaps, is more than any light 
man could do, But, the best man at putting the 
stone and throwing a weight we ever saw, was a 
man of little more than ten stone. In this exer- 
cise, as in wrestling, the application of a man's 
whole weight at the proper moment is the chief 
point : so also in hard hitting. 

The whirl of the bat may be accelerated by 
wrist, fore-arm, and shoulder : let each joint bear 
its proper part. 

Nuts for strong teeth. — All effective hits 
must be made with both hands and arms ; and, in 
order that both arms may apply their force, the 
point at which the ball is struck should be oppo- 
site the middle of the body. 

Take a bat in your hand, poise the body as for 
a half-volley hit forward, the line from shoulder 
to shoulder being parallel with the line of the 
ball. Now whirl the bat in the line of the ball, 
and you will find that it reaches that part of its 
circle where it is perpendicular to the ground, — 
midway between the shoulders ; at that moment 
the bat attains its greatest velocity ; so, then alone 
can the strongest hit be made. Moreover, a hit 



124 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



made at this moment will drive the ball parallel 
to and skimming the ground. And if, in such a 
hit, the lower six inches of the bat's face strike 
the ball, the hit is properly called a " clean hit," 
being free from all imperfections. The same may 
be said of a horizontal hit, or cut. The bat should 
meet the ball when opposite the body. I do not 
say that every hit should be made in this manner ; 
I only say that a perfect hit can be made in no 
other, and that it should be the aim of the bats- 
man to attain this position of the body as often 
as he can. Nor is this mere speculation on the 
scientific principle of batting ; it arises from actual 
observation of the movements of the best batsmen. 
All good hitters make their hits just at the mo- 
ment when the ball is opposite the middle of 
their body. Watch any fine OiF-hitter. If he 
hits to Mid- wicket, his breast is turned to Mid- 
wicket ; if he hits, I mean designedly, to Point, 
his breast is turned to Point. I do not say that 
his hits would always go to those parts of the 
field ; because the speed and spin of the ball will 
always, to a greater or less degree, prevent its 
going in the precise direction of the hit ; but I 
only say that the ball is always hit by the best 
batsmen when just opposite to them. Cutting 
forms no exception: the best cutters turn the 
body round on the basis of the feet till the breast 
fronts the ball, — having let the ball go almost as 



CLEAN HITTING. 



125 



far as the bails, — and then the full power of the 
hitter is brought to bear with the least possible 
diminution of the original speed of the ball. This 
is the meaning of the observation, — that fine 
cutters appear to follow the ball, and at the latest 
moment cut the ball off the bails ; for, if you do 
not follow the ball, by turning your breast to it 
at the moment you hit, you can have no power 
for a fine cut. It makes good " Chamber prac- 
tice" to suspend a ball oscillating by a string : 
you will thus see wherein lies that peculiar power 
of cutting, which characterises Mr. Bradshaw, 
Mr. Felix, and Mr. C. Taylor ; as of old, Searle, 
Saunders, and Robinson. Robinson cut so late 
that the ball often appeared past the wicket. 

And these hints will suffice to awaken attention 
to the powers of the bat. Clean hitting is a 
thing to be carefully studied ; the player who has 
never discovered his deficiency in it, had better 
examine and see whether there is not a secret he 
has yet to learn. 

The Tice. Safest to block : apt to be missed, 
because a dropping ball ; hard to get away, be- 
cause on the ground. Drop the bat smartly on 
the ground, and it will make a run, but do not 
try too much of a hit. The Tice is almost a full 
pitch ; the way to hit it, says Caldecourt, is to 
go in and make it a full pitch : I cannot advise 
this for beginners. Going in even to a Tice puts 



126 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



you out of form for the next ball, and creates a 
dangerous habit. 

Ground balls, and all balls that touch the 
ground more than once between wickets, I have 
already hinted, are reckoned very easy, but they 
are always liable to prove very dangerous. Some- 
times you have three hops, and the last like a 
good length ball : at each hop the ball may twist 
On or Off with the inequalities of the ground ; 
also, if bowled with the least bias, there is much 
scope for that bias to produce effect. All these 
peculiarities account for a fact, strange but true, 
that the best batsmen are often out with the worst 
bowling. Bad bowling requires a game of its 
own, and a game of the greatest care, where too 
commonly we find the least ; because " only un- 
derhand bowling," — and "not by any means good 
lengths ; " it requires, especially, playing at o the 
ball itself, even to the last inch, and not by cal- 
culation of the pitch or rise. 

Let me further remark that hitting, to be 
either free, quick, or clean, must be done by the 
arms and wrists, and not by the body ; though the 
weight of the body appears to be thrown in by 
putting down the left leg ; though, in reality, the 
lea* comes down after the hit to restore the balance. 

Can a man throw his body into a blow (at 
cricket) ? About as much as he can hold up a 
horse with a bridle while sitting on the same 



SECKET OF HAED HITTING. 127 

horse's back. Both are common expressions; 
both are at variance with the laws of nature. A 
man can only hit by whirling his bat in a circle. 
If he stands with both feet near together, he hits 
feebly because in a smaller circle ; if he throws 
his left foot forward, he hits harder because in a 
wider circle. A pugilist cannot throw in his body 
with a round hit ; and a cricketer cannot make 
anything else but round hits. Take it as a rule 
in hitting, ' that what is not elegant is not right ; 
for the human frame is rarely inelegant in its 
movements when all the muscles act in their 
natural direction. Many men play with their 
shoulders up to their ears, and their sinews all in 
knots, and because they are conscious of desperate 
exertion, they forget that their force is going any- 
where rather than into the ball. It is often re- 
marked that hard hitting does not depend on 
strength. No. It depends not on the strength a man 
has, but on the strength he exerts, at the right time 
and in the right direction ; and strength is exerted 
in hitting, as in throwing a ball, in exact pro- 
portion to the rapidity of the whirl or circle which 
the bat or hand describes. The point of the bat 
moves faster in the circle than any other part ; 
and, therefore, did not the jar, resulting from the 
want of resistance, place the point of hitting, as 
experience shows, a little higher up, the nearer 
the end the harder would be the hit. The wrist, 



128 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



however slight its force, acting with a multiplying 
power, adds greatly to the speed of this whirl. 

Hard hitting, then, depends, first, on the free- 
dom with which the arm revolves from the 
shoulder, unimpeded by constrained efforts and 
contortions of the body ; next, on the play of the 
arm at the elbow ; thirdly, on the wrists. Ob- 
serve any cramped clumsy hitter, and you will 
recognise these truths at once. His elbow seems 
glued to his side, his shoulder stiff at the joint, 
and the little speed of his bat depends on a twist 
and a wriggle of his whole body. 

Keep your body as composed and easy as the 
requisite adjustment of the left leg will admit ; 
let your arms do the hitting ; and remember the 
wrists. The whiz that meets the ear will be a 
criterion of increasing power. Practise hard hit- 
ting, — that is, the full and timely application of 
your strength, not only for the value of the extra 
score, but because hard hitting and correct and 
clean hitting are one and the same thing. Mere 
stopping balls and poking about in the blockhole 
is not cricket, however successful ; and I must 
admit, that one of the most awkward, poking, 
vexatious blockers that ever produced a counter- 
feit of cricket, defied Bayley and Cobbett at 
Oxford in 1836, — three hours, and made five 
and thirty runs. Another friend, a better player, 
addicted to the same teasing game, in a match at 



HOW TO USE YOUR EYES. 



129 



Exeter in 1845, blocked away till his party, the 
N. Devon, won the match, chiefly by byes and 
wide balls ! Such men might have turned their 
powers to much better account. 

Some maintain that anything that succeeds is 
cricket ; but not such cricket as full-grown men 
should vote a scientific and a manly exercise ; 
otherwise, to " run cunning 99 might be Coursing, 
and to kill sitting Shooting. A player may happen 
to succeed with what is not generally a successful 
style, — winning in spite of his awkwardness, and 
not by virtue of it. 

But there is another cogent reason for letting 
your arms, and not your body, do the work, — 
namely, that it makes all the difference to your 
sight whether the level of the eye remains the 
same as with a composed and easy hitter ; or, 
unsteady and changing, as with the wriggling 
and the clumsy player. Whether a ball undulates 
in the air, or w T hether there is an equal undulation 
in the line of the eye which regards that ball, the 
confusion and indistinctness is the same. As an 
experiment, look at any distant object, and move 
your head up and down, and you will understand 
the confusion of sight to which I allude. The 
only security of a good batsman, as of a good shot, 
consists in the hand and eye being habituated to 
act together. Now, the hand may obey the eye 
when at rest, but have no such habit when in un- 

K 



130 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



steady motion. And this shows how uncertain all 
hitting must be, when, either by the movement of 
the body or other cause, the line of sight is sud- 
denly raised or depressed. 

The same law of sight shows the disadvantage 
of men who stand at guard very low, and then 
suddenly raise themselves as the ball is coming. 

The same law of sight explains the disadvantage 
of stepping in to hit, especially with a slow drop- 
ping ball : the eye is puzzled by a double motion — 
the change in the level of the ball, and the change 
in the level of the line of sight. 

So much for our theory : now for experience ! 
Look at Pilch and all fine players. How charac- 
teristic is the ease and repose of their figures — no 
hurry or trepidation. How little do their heads 
or bodies move! Bad players dance about, as if 
they stood on hot iron, a dozen times while the 
ball is coming, with precisely the disadvantage 
that attends an unsteady telescope. " Then you 
would actually teach a man how to see?" We 
would teach him how to give his eyes a fair chance. 
Of sight, as of quickness, most players have 
enough, if they would only make good use of it. 

To see a man wink his eyes and turn his head 
away is not uncommon the first day of partridge 
shooting, and quite as common at the wicket. An 
undoubting judgment and knowledge of the prin- 
ciples of batting literally improves the sight, for 



UPRIGHT PLAT. 



131 



it increases that calm confidence which is essential 
for keeping your eyes open and in a line to see 
clearly. 

Sight of a ball also depends on a habit of un- 
divided attention both before and after delivery, 
and very much on health. A yellow bilious eye 
bespeaks a short innings : so, be very careful what 
you eat and drink when engaged to play a match. 
At a match at Purton in 1836, five of the Lans- 
downe side, after supping on crab and champagne, 
could do nothing but lie on the grass. But your 
sight may be seriously affected when you do not 
feel actually ill. So Horace found at Capua : — 

" Narnque pild lippis inimicum et ludere crudisT 

Straight and Upright Play. — To be a 
good judge of a horse, to have good common 
sense, and to hit straight and upright at Cricket, 
are qualifications never questioned without dire 
offence. Yet few, very few, ever play as upright 
as they might play, and that even to guard their 
three stumps. To be able, with a full and up- 
right bat, to play well over and to command a ball 
a few inches to the Off, or a little to the leg, is a 
a very superior and rare order of ability. 

The first exercise for learning upright play is 
to practise several times against an easy bowler, 
with both hands on the same side of the handle of 
the bat. Not that this is the way to hold a bat 



132 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



in play, though the bat so held must be upright ; 
but this exercise of rather poking than playing 
will inure you to the habit and method of upright 
play. Afterwards shift your hands to their proper 
position, and practise slipping your left hand 
round into the same position, while in the act of 
coming forward. 

But be sure you stand up to your work, or 
close to your blockhole ; and let the bowler ad- 
monish you every time you shrink away or appear 
afraid of the ball. Much practice is required 
before it is possible for a young player to attain 
that perfect composure and indifference to the 
ball that characterises the professor. The least 
nervousness or shrinking is sure to draw the bat 
out of the perpendicular. As to shrinking from 
the ball — I do not mean any apprehension of 
injury, but only the result of a want of know- 
ledge of length or distance, and the result of un- 
certainty as to how the ball is coming, and how 
to prepare to meet it. Nothing distinguishes the 
professor from the amateur more than the com- 
posed and unshrinking posture in which he plays 
a ball. 

Practice alone will prevent shrinking : so en- 
courage your bowler continually to remind you of 
it. As to practising with a bowler, you see some 
men at Lord's and the University grounds batting 
hour after hour, as if cricket were to be taken by 



A CONVENIENT EXERCISE. 



133 



storm. To practise long at one time is positively 
injurious. For about one hour a man may prac- 
tise to advantage ; for a second hour, he may rather 
improve his batting even by keeping wicket, or 
acting long stop. Anything is good practice for 
batting which only habituates the hand and eye 
to act together. 

The next exercise is of a more elegant kind, 
and quite coincident with your proper game. 
Always throw back the point of the bat, while 
receiving the ball, to the top of the middle stump, 
as in figure, page 114 ; then the handle will point 
to the bowler, and the whole bat be in the line 
of the wicket. By commencing in this position, 
you cannot fail -to bring your bat straight and 
full upon the ball. If you take up your bat 
straight, you cannot help hitting straight ; but if 
once you raise the point of the bat across the 
wicket, to present a full bat for that ball is quite 
impossible. 

One advantage of this exercise is that it may 
be practised even without a bowler. The path 
of a field, with ball and bat, and a stick for a 
stump, are all the appliances required. Place the 
ball before you, one, two, or more feet in advance, 
and more or less On or Off, at discretion. Prac- 
tise hitting with right foot always fixed, and with 
as upright and full a bat as possible : keep your 
left elbow up, and always over the ball. 

K 3 s 



134 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



This exercise will teach, at the same time, the 
full powers of the bat ; what style of hitting is 
most efficacious ; at what angle you smother the 
ball, and at what you can hit clean ; only, be 
careful to play in form ; and always see that your 
right foot has not moved before you follow to 
pick up the ball. Fixing the right foot is alone a 
great^ help to upright play ; for while the right 
foot remains behind, you are so completely over a 
straight ball, and in a form to present a full bat, 
that you will rarely play across the ball. Firmness 
in the right foot is also essential to hard hitting, 
for you cannot exert much strength unless you 
stand in a firm and commanding position. 

Upright and straight hitting, then, requires, 
briefly, the point of the bat thrown back to the 
middle stump as the ball is coming ; secondly, the 
left elbow well up ; and, thirdly, the right foot 
fixed, and near the blockhole. 

Never play a single ball without strict atten- 
tion to these three rules. At first you will feel 
cramped and powerless ; but practice will soon 
give ease and elegance, and form the habit not 
only of all sure defence, but of all certain hitting : 
for, the straight player has always wood enough 
and to spare in the way of the ball; whereas, a 
deviation of half an inch leaves the cross-player 
at fault. Mr. William Ward once played a single- 
wicket match with a thick stick, against another 



ART OF STRAIGHT PLAY. 



135 



with a bat ; yet these are not much more than 
the odds of good straight play against cross play. 
At Cheltenham College the first Eleven plays the 
second Eleven " a broomstick match." 

When a player hits almost every time he raises 
his bat, the remark is, What an excellent eye that 
batsman has ! But, upright play tends far more 
than eye to certainty in hitting. It is not easy to 
miss when you make the most of every inch of 
your bat. But when you trust to the width 
alone, a slight error produces a miss, and not un- 
commonly a catch. 

The great difficulty in learning upright play 
consists in detecting when you are playing across. 
So your practice-bowler must remind you of the 
slightest shifting of the foot, shrinking from the 
wicket, or declination of your bat. Straight 
bowling is more easy to stand up to without 
nervous shrinking, and slow bowling best reveals 
every weak point, because a slow ball must be 
played: it will not play itself. Many stylish 
players are beaten by slow bowling; some, be- 
cause never thoroughly grounded in the principles 
of correct play and judgment of lengths ; others, 
because hitting by rule and not at the ball. Sys- 
tem with scientific players is apt to supersede 
sight ; so take care as the mind's eye opens the 
natural eye does not shut. 

Underhand bowling is by far the best for a 



136 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



learner, and learners are, or should be, a large 
class. Being generally at the wicket, it produces 
the straightest play : falling stumps are " no flat- 
terers, but feelingly remind us what we are." 
Caldecourt, who had a plain, though judicious, 
style of bowling, once observed a weak point in 
Mr. Ward's play, and levelled his stumps three 
times in about as many balls. Many men boast- 
ing, as Mr. Ward then did, of nearly the first 
average of his day, would have blamed the bowler, 
the ground, the wind, and, in short, any thing 
but themselves ; but Mr. Ward, a liberal patron 
of the game, in the days of his prosperity, gave 
Caldecourt a guinea for his judgment in the game 
and his useful lesson. "Such," Dr. Johnson 
would say, "is the spirit and self-denial of those 
whose memories are not doomed to decay" with 
their bats, but play cricket for " immortality." 

Playing Forward and Back. — And now 
about length-balls, and when to play forward at 
the pitch, and when back for a better sight of the 
rebound. 

A length-ball is one that pitches at a puzzling 
length from the bat. This length cannot be re- 
duced to any exact and uniform measurement, 
depending on the delivery of the bowler and the 
reach of the batsman. 

For more intelligible explanation, I must refer 
you to your friends. 



PLAYING FORWARD AND BACK. 137 



Every player is conscious of one particular 
length that puzzles him, — of one point between 
himself and the bowler, in which he would rather 
that the ball should not pitch. " There is a 
length-ball that almost blinds you," said an expe- 
rienced player at Lord's. There is a length that 
makes many a player shut his eyes and turn 
away his head ; 66 a length," says Mr. Felix, 
" that brings over a man most indescribable 
emotions." There are two ways to play such 
balls: to discriminate is difficult, and, "if you 
doubt, you are lost." Let a be the farthest point 




to which a good player can reach, so as to plant 
his bat at the proper angle, at once preventing a 
catch, stopping a shooter, and intercepting a 
bailer. Then, at any point short of A, should the 
bat be placed, the ball may rise over the bat if 
held to the ground, or shoot under if the bat is a 
little raised. At b the same single act of plant- 
ing the bat cannot both cover a bailer and stop a 
shooter. Every ball which the batsman can 



138 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



reach, as at A, may be met with a full bat 
forward; and, being taken at the pitch, it is 
either stopped or driven away with all its rising, 
cutting, shooting, or twisting propensities unde- 
veloped. If not stopped at A, the ball may rise 
and shoot in six lines at least ; so, if forced to 
play back, you have six things to guard against 
instead of one. Still, any ball you cannot cover 
forward, as at b, must be played back ; and nearly 
in the attitude shown in page 115. This back 
play gives as long a sight of the ball as possible, 
and enables the player either to be up for a bailer 
or down for a shooter. 

More Hard Nuts. — Why do certain lengths 
puzzle, and what is the nature of all this puzzling 
emotion ? It is a sense of confusion and of doubt. 
At the moment of the pitch, the ball is lost in the 
ground; so you doubt whether it will rise, or 
whether it will shoot — whether it will twist, or 
come in straight. The eye follows the ball till it 
touches the ground : till this moment there is no 
great doubt, for its course is known to be uniform. 
I say no great doubt, because there is always 
some doubt till the ball has passed some yards 
from the bowler's hand. The eye cannot distin- 
guish the direction of a ball approaching till it has 
seen a fair portion of its flight. Then only can 
you calculate what the rest of the flight will be. 
Still, before the ball has pitched, the first doubt 



PHILOSOPHY OF FORWAKD PLAY. 139 



is resolved, and the batsman knows the ball's 
direction ; but, when once it touches the ground, 
the change of light alone (earth instead of air 
being the background) is trying to the eye. 
Then, at the rise, recommences all the uncertainty 
of a second delivery ; for, the direction of the ball 
has once more to be ascertained, and that requires 
almost as much time for sight as will sometimes 
bring the ball into the wicket. 

All this difficulty of sight applies only to the 
batsman ; to him the ball is advancing and fore- 
shortened in proportion as it is straight. If the 
ball is rather wide, or if seen, as by Point, from 
the side, the ball may be easily traced, without 
confusion, from. first to last. It is the fact of an 
object approaching perfectly straight to you, that 
confuses your sense of distance. A man stand- 
ing on a railway cannot judge of the nearness 
of the engine ; nor a man behind a target of the 
approach of the arrow ; whereas, seen obliquely, 
the flight is clear. Hence a long hop is not a 
puzzling length, because there is time to ascertain 
the second part of the course or rebound. A toss 
is easy because one course only. The tice also, 
and the half-volley, or any over-pitched balls, are 
not so puzzling, because they may be met forward, 
and the two parts of the flight reduced to one. 
Such is the philosophy of forward play, in- 
tended to obviate the batsman's chief difficulty 3 



140 



THE CEICKET FIELD. 



which is, with the second part, or, the rebound of j 
the ball. 

The following are good rules : — 

1. Meet every ball at the pitch by forward 
play which you can conveniently cover. 

Whatever ball you can play forward, you can 
play safely -- as by one single movement. But 
in playing the same ball back, you give yourself 
two things to think of instead of one — stopping 
and keeping down a bailer ; and, stopping a 
shooter. Every ball is the more difficult to play 
back in exact proportion to the ease with which 
it might be played forward. The player has a 
shorter sight, and less time to see the nature of 
the rise ; so the ball crowds upon him, affording 
neither time nor space for effective play. Never 
play back but of necessity ; meet every ball for- 
ward which you can conveniently cover — I say 
conveniently, because, if the pitch of the ball 
cannot be reached without danger of losing your 
balance, misplacing your bat, or drawing your 
foot out of your ground, that ball should be con- 
sidered out of reach, and be played back. This 
rule many fine players, in their eagerness to score, 
are apt to violate ; so, if the ball rises abruptly, 
they are bowled or caught. There is also danger 
of playing wide of the ball, if you over-reach. 

2. Some say, When in doubt play back. Cer- 
tainly all balls may be played back ; but many it 



FOKWAKD PLAT. 



141 



is almost impracticable to play forward. But 
since the best forward players may err, the fol- 
lowing hint, founded on the practice of Fuller 
Pilch, will suggest an excellent means of getting 
out of a difficulty : — Practise the art of half-play ; 
that is, practise going forward to balls a little be- 
yond your reach, and then, instead of planting 
your bat near the pitch, which is supposed too far 
distant to be effectually covered, watch for the 
ball about half-way, being up if it rises, and down 
if it shoots. By this half-play, which I learnt 
from one of Pilch's pupils, I have often saved my 
wicket when I found myself forward for a ball 
out of reach ; though before, I felt defenceless, 
and often let the ball pass either under or over 
my bat. Still half-play, though a fine saving 
clause for proficients, is but a choice of evils, and 
no practice for learners, as forming a bad habit. 
By trying too many ways, you spoil your game. 

3. Ascertain the extent of your utmost reach 
forward, and practise accordingly. The simplest 
method is to fix your right foot at the crease, and 
try how far forward you can conveniently plant 
your bat at the proper angle ; then, allowing that 
the ball may be covered at about three feet from 
its pitch, you will see at once how many feet you 
can command in front of the crease. Pilch could 
command from ten to twelve feet. Some short 
men will command ten feet ; that is to say, they 



142 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



will safely meet forward every ball which pitches 
within that distance from the crease. 

There are two ways of holding a bat in playing 
forward. The position of the hands, as of Pilch, 
in the frontispiece, standing at guard, will not 
admit of a long reach forward. But by shifting 
the left hand behind the bat, the action is free, 
and the reach unimpeded. 

Every learner must practise this shifting of the 
left hand in forward play. The hand will soon 
come round naturallv. Also, learn to reach for- 
ward with composure and no loss of balance. 
Play forward evenly and gracefully, with rather 
an elastic movement. Practice will greatly in- 
crease your reach. Take care you do not lose 
sight of the ball, as many do ; and, look at the 
ball itself, not merely at the spot where you 




expect it to pitch. Much depends on commencing 
at the proper moment, and not being in a hurry. 



CAUTION IN FORWARD PLAY. 143 



Especially avoid any catch or flourish. Come 
forward, foot and bat together, most evenly and 
most quietly. 

Forward play may be practised almost as well 
in a room as in a cricket-field : better still with a 
ball in the path of a field. To force a ball back 
to the bowler or long-field by hard forward play 
is commonly called Driving ; and driving you may 
practise without any bowler, and greatly improve 
in balance and correctness of form, and thus in- 
crease the extent of your reach, and habituate the 
eye to a correct discernment of the point afc which 
forward play ends and back play begins. By 
practice you will attain a power of coming forward 
with a spring, and playing hard or driving. All 
fine players drive nearly every ball they meet 
forward, and this driving admits of so many 
degrees of strength that sometimes it amounts to 
quite a hard hit. " I once," said Clarke, " had 
thought there might be a school opened for 
cricket in the winter months ; for, you may drill a 
man to use a bat as well as a broad-sword." With 
driving, as with half-play, be not too eager — play 
forward surely and steadily at first, otherwise the 
point of the bat will get in advance, or the hit be 
badly timed, and give a catch to the bowler. This 
is one error into which the finest forward players 
have sometimes gradually fallen — a vicious habit, 
formed from an overweening confidence and sue- 



144 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



cess upon their own ground. Comparing notes 
lately with an experienced player, we both re- 
membered a time when we thought we could 
make hard and free hits even off those balls which 
good players play gently back to the bowler ; but 
eventually a succession of short innings sent us 
back to safe and sober play. 

Sundry other hits are made, contrary to every 
rule, by players accustomed to one ground or 
one set of bowlers. Many an Etonian has found 
that a game, which succeeded in the Shooting 
fields, has proved an utter failure when all was 
new at Lord's or in a country match. 

Every player should practise occasionally with 
professional bowlers; for, they ook to the princi- 
ple of play, and point out radical errors even in 
showy hits, Even Pilch will request a friend to 
stand by him in practice to detect any shifting of 
the foot or other bad habit, into which experience 
teaches that the best men unconsciously fall. I 
would advise every good player to take one or 
two such lessons at the beginning of the season. 
A man cannot see himself, and will hardly believe 
that he is taking up his bat across wicket, saw- 
ing across at a draw, tottering over instead of 
steady, moving off his ground at leg balls, or very 
often playing forward with a flourish instead of 
full on the ball, and making often most childish 



CORRECT HABITS. 



145 



mistakes which need only be mentioned to be 
avoided. 

One great difficulty, we observed, consists in 
correct discrimination of length and instantaneous 
decision. To form correctly as the ball pitches, 
there is time enough, but none to spare: time 
only to act, no time to think. So also with 
shooting, driving, and various kinds of exercises* 
at the critical moment all depends not on thought, 
but habit : by constant practice, the time requisite 
for deliberation becomes less and less, till at length 
we are unconscious of any deliberation at all, — 
acting, as it were, by intuition or instinct, for the 
occasion prompts the action : then, in common 
language, we " do it naturally," or, have formed 
that habit which is " a second nature." 

In this sense, a player must form a habit of 
correct decision in playing forward and back. 
Till he plays by habit, he is not safe : the sight of 
the length must prompt the corresponding move- 
ment. Look at Fuller Pilch, or Mr. C. Taylor, 
and this rule will be readily understood; for, 
with such players, every ball is as naturally and 
instinctively received by its appropriate movement 
as if the player were an automaton, and the ball 
touched a spring : so quickly does forward play, 
or back, and the attitude for off-cut or leg-hit, 
appear to coincide with, or rather to anticipate, 
each suitable length. All this quickness, ease, 

L 



146 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



and readiness marks a habit of correct play ; and 
the question is, how to form such a habit. 

All the calmness or composure we admire in 
proficients results from a habit of playing each 
length in one way, and in one way only. To 
attain this habit, measure your reach before the 
crease, as you begin to practise with a bowler ; 
and, make a mark visible to the bowler, but not 
such as will divert your own eye. 

Having fixed such a mark, let your bowler 
pitch, as nearly as he can, sometimes on this side 
of the mark, sometimes on that. After every 
ball, you have only to ask, Which side ? and you 
will have demonstrative proof whether your play 
has been right or wrong. Constant practice, 
with attention to the pitch, will habituate your 
eye to lengths, and enable you to decide in a 
moment how to play. 

For my own part, I have rarely practised for 
years without this mark. It enables me to as- 
certain, by referring to the bowler, where any 
ball has pitched. To know at a glance the exact 
length of a ball, however necessary, is not quite 
as easy to the batsman as to the bowler ; and, 
without practising with a mark, you may remain 
a long time in error. 

After a few days' practice, you will become as 
certain of the length of each ball, and of your 
ability to reach it, as if you actually saw the 



A HABIT TO FORM. 



147 



mark, for you will carry the measurement in 
" your mind's eye.'" 

So far well : you have gained a perception of 
lengths and distance ; the next thing is, to apply 
this knowledge. Therefore, bear in mind you have 
a habit to eorm. No doubt, many will laugh 
at this philosophy. Pilch does not know the 
"theory of moral habits," I dare say; but he 
knows well enough that wild practice spoils play ; 
and if to educated men I please to say that, wild 
play involves the formation of a set of bad habits 
to hang about you, and continually interfere with 
good intentions, where is the absurdity ? How 
should you like to be doomed to play with some 
mischievous fellow, always tickling your elbow, 
and making you spasmodically play forward, when 
you ought'to play back, or, hit round or cut, when 
you ought to play straight? Precisely such a 
mischievous sprite is a bad habit. Till you have 
got rid of him, he is always liable to come across 
you and tickle you out of your innings : all your 
resolution is no good. Habit is a much stronger 
principle than resolution. Accustom the hand to 
obey sound judgment, otherwise it will follow its 
old habit instead of your new principles. 

To borrow an admirable illustration from Plato> 
which Socrates' pupil remarked was rather apt 
than elegant, — "While habit keeps up itching, 
man can't help scratching." And what is most 

L 2 



148 



THE CRICKET FIELD, 



remarkable in bad habits of play is, that, long 
after a man thinks he has overcome them, by 
some chance association, the old trick appears 
again, and a man feels (oh ! fine for a moralist !) 
one law in his mind and another law — or rather, 
let us say, he feels a certain latent spring in him 
ever liable to be touched, and disturb all the har- 
mony of his cricketing economy. 

Having, therefore, a habit to form, take the 
greatest pains that you methodically play forward 
to the over-pitched, and back to the under-pitched, 
balls. My custom was, the moment the ball 
pitched, to say audibly to myself " forward," or 
"back." By degrees I was able to calculate the 
length sooner and sooner before the pitch, having, 
of course, the more time to prepare ; till, at last, 
no sooner was the ball out of the bowler's hand, 
than ball and bat were visibly preparing for each 
other's reception. After some weeks' practice, 
forward and back play became so easy, that I. 
cease to think about it : the very sight of the 
ball naturally suggesting the appropriate move- 
ment ; in other words, I had formed a habit of 
correct play in this particular. 

" Suave mari magno" says Lucretius ; that is, 
it is delightful, from the vantage ground of 
science, to see others floundering in a sea of error, 
and to feel a happy sense of comparative security; 
■ — so, was it no little pleasure to see the many 



BAD AND GOOD HABITS. 149 



wickets that fell, or the many catches which were 
made, from defects I had entirely overcome. 

For, without the habit aforesaid, a man will 
often shut his eyes, and remove his right fingers, 
as if the bat were hot, and then look behind him 
and find his wicket down. A second, will advance 
a foot forward, feel and look all abroad, and then 
try to seem unconcerned, if no mischief happens. 
A third, will play back with the shortest possible 
sight of the ball, and hear his stumps rattle before 
he has time to do anything. A fourth, will stand 
still, a fixture of fuss and confusion, with the same 
result ; while a fifth, will go gracefully forward, 
with straightest possible bat, and the most merito- 
rious elongation of limb, and the ball will pass 
over the shoulder of his bat, traverse the whole 
length of his arms, and back, and colossal legs, 
tipping off the bails, or giving a chance to the 
wicket-keeper. Then, as Poins says of FalstafF, 
" The virtue of this jest will be the incompre- 
hensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us." 
For, when a man is out by this simple error in 
forward or backward play, it would take a volume 
to record the variety of his excuses. 

The reason so much has been said about Habit 
is, partly, that the player may understand that 
bad habits are formed as readily as good ; that a 
repetition of wild hits, or experimentalising with 
hard hits off good lengths, may disturb your quick 

L 3 



150 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



perception of critical lengths, and give you an 
uncontrollable habit of dangerous hitting. 

The Shooter. — This is the surest and most 
destructive ball that is bowled. Stopping shooters 
depends on correct position, on a habit of playing 
at the ball and not losing it after the pitch, and 
on a quick discernment of lengths. 

The great thing is decision ; to doubt is to lose 
time, and to lose time is to lose your wicket. 
And this decision requires a correct habit of 
forward and back play. But since prevention is 
better than cure, by meeting at the pitch every 
ball within your reach, you directly diminish the 
number, not only of shooters, but of the most 
dangerous of all shooters, because of those which 
afford the shortest time to play. But, supposing 
you cannot cover the ball at the pitch, and a 
shooter it must be, then 

The first thing is, to have the bat always 
pointed back to the wicket, as vol Jig. 1. page 115 ; 
thus you will drop down on the ball, and have all 
the time and space the case admits of. If the bat 
is not previously thrown back, when the ball shoots 
the player has two operations, — the one, to put the 
bat back ; and the other, to ground it : instead of 
one simple drop down alone. I never saw any man 
do this better than Wenman, when playing the 
North and South match at Lord's in 1836. Red- 
gate was in his prime, and almost all his balls 



THE BAIL BALL. 



151 



were shooting down the hill ; and, from the good 
time and precision with which Wenman dropped 
down upon some dozen shooters, with all the pace 
and spin for which Redgate was famous — the 
ground being hardened into brick by the sun — I 
have ever considered Wenman equal to any bats- 
man of his day. 

The second thing is, to prepare for back play 
with the first possible intimation that the ball will 
require it. A good player descries the enemy, 
and drops back as soon as the ball is out of the 
bowler's hand. 

The third — a golden rule for batsmen — is : 
expect a good length to shoot, and you will have 
time, if it rises : but if you expect it to rise, you 
are too late if it shoots. 

The Bail Ball. — First, the attitude is that 
of Jig. L The bat thrown back to the bails is 
indispensable for quickness : if you play a bailer 
too late, short slip is placed on purpose to catch 
you out ; therefore watch the ball from the 
bowler's hand, and drop back on your wicket in 
good time. Also, take the greatest pains in- 
tracing the ball every inch from the hand to the 
bat. Look hard for the twist, or a " break" will 
be fatal. To keep the eye steadily on the ball, 
and not lose it at the pitch, is a hint even for 
experienced players : so make this the subject of 
attentive practice. 

L 4 



152 



THE CEICKET FIELD. 



The most difficult of all bailers are those which 
ought not to be allowed to come in as bailers 
at all, those which should be met at the pitch. 
Such over-pitched balls give neither time nor 
space, if you attempt to play them back. 

Every length ball is difficult to play back, just 
in proportion to the ease with which it could be 
covered forward. A certain space, from nine to 
twelve feet, before the crease is, to a practised 
batsman, so much terra Jirma, whereon pitching 
every ball is a safe stop or score. Practise with 
the chalk mark, and learn to make this terra 
firma as wide as possible. 

The Dkaw is so called, I suppose, because, 
when perfectly made, there is no draw at all. 
Look at Jig. 2. The bat is not drawn across the 
wicket, but hangs perpendicularly from the wrists ; 
though the wrists of a good player are never 
idle, but bring the bat to meet the ball a few 
inches, and the hit is the natural angle formed by 
the opposing forces. " Say also," suggests Clarke, 
" that the ball meeting the bat, held easy in the 
hand, will turn it a little of its own force, and the 
wrists feel when to help it." This old rule hardly 
consists with the principle of meeting the ball. 

The Draw is the spontaneous result of straight 
play about the two leg stumps : for if you begin, 
as in Jig. 1., with point of bat thrown back true 
to middle stump, you cannot bring the bat 



THE DRAW. 



153 



Fig. 2. 




straight to meet a leg- stump ball without the 
line of the bat and the line of the ball forming 
an angle in crossing each other ; and, by keeping 
your wrists well back, and giving a clear space 
between body and wicket, the Draw will follow 
of itself. 

The bat must not be purposely presented edge- 
ways in the least degree. Draw a full bat from 
the line of the middle stump to meet a leg-stump 



154 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



bal^ and, as the line of the ball must make a very 
acute angle, you will have the benefit of a hit 
without lessening your defence. " A Draw is 
very dangerous with a ball that would hit the leg 
stump," some say ; but only when attempted in 
the wrong way ; for, how can a full bat increase 
your danger ? 

This mode of play will also lead to, what is 
most valuable but most rare, a correct habit of 
passing every ball the least to the Near side of 
middle stump clear away to the On side. This 
blocking between legs and wickets, first, obviates 
the ball going off legs into wicket ; secondly, it 
keeps many awkward balls out of Slip's hands ; 
and, thirdly, it makes single runs off the best 
balls. 

Too little, now-a-days, is done with the Draw ; 
too much is attempted by the " blind swipe," to 
the loss of many wickets. 

Every man in a first-rate match who loses his 
wicket, while swiping round, ought to pay a 
forfeit to the Reward Fund. 

The only balls for the Draw are those which 
threaten the wicket. To shuffle backwards half 
a yard, scraping the bat on the ground, or to let 
the ball pass one side the body with a blind swing 
on the other, are hits which to mention is to 
reprove. 

Our good friend, Mr. Abraham Bass, — and 



OFF PLAT. 



155 



what cricketer in the Midland Counties defers not 
to his judgment? — thinks that the Draw cannot 
be made quite so much of as we say, except by a 
left-handed man. The short-pitched balls which 
some draw, he thinks, are best played back to 
middle On, by a turn of the left arm to the 
On side. 

Here Mr. Bass mentions a very good hit — a 
good variety — and one, too, little practised: his 
hit and the Draw are each good in their respec- 
tive places. To discriminate every shade is im- 
possible. " Mr. Taylor had most hits I ever saw, 5 ' 
said Caldecourt, " and was a better player even 
than Lord Frederick ; though Mr. Taylor's hits 
were not all legitimate : " so much the better ; new 
combinations of old hits. 

As to the old-fashioned hit under leg, Mr. 
Mynn, at Leicester, in 1836, gave great effect 
to one variety of it ; a hit which Pilch makes 
useful, though hard to make elegant. Some say, 
with Caldecourt, such balls ought always to be 
drawn : but is it not a useful variety ? 

Draw or Glance from off Stump, — 
What is true of the Leg stump is true of the Off, 
care being taken of catch to Slips. Every ball 
played from two Off stumps, by free play of wrist 
and left shoulder well over, should go away 
among the Slips. Play hard on the ball; the 



156 THE CRICKET FIELD. 



ball must never hit a dead bat ; and every so- 
called block, from off stumps, must be a hit. 

Commence, as always, from fig. 1.; stand close 
up to your wicket ; weight on pivot-foot ; balance- 
foot ready to come over as required. This is the 
only position from which you can command the 
off stump. 

Bear with me, my friends, in dwelling so much 
on this Off-play. Many fine cutters could never 
in their lives command of}' stump with a full and 
upright bat. Whence come the many misses of 
off-hits ? Observe, and you will see, it is because 
the bat is slanting, or it must sweep the whole 
space through which the ball could rise. 

By standing close up, and playing well over 
your wicket with straight bat, and throwing, by 
means of left leg, the body forwards over a ball 
rising to the off-stump, you may make an effec- 
tive hit from an off-bailer without lessening your 
defence ; for how can hard blocking, w T ith a full 
bat, be dangerous? All that is required is, 
straight play and a free wrist, though certainly 
a tall man has here a great advantage. 

A free Wrist. — Without wrist play there 
can be no good style of batting. Do not be 
puzzled about " throwing your body into your hit." 
Absurd, except with straight hits — half-volley, 
for instance. Suspend a ball, oscillating by a 
string from a beam, keep your right foot fixed, 



THE OFF-HIT. 



157 



and use the left leg to give the time and command 
of the ball and to adjust the balance, and you 
will soon learn the power of the wrists and arms. 
Also, use no heavy bats ; 2 lbs. 2 oz. is heavy 
enough for any man who plays with his wrists. 
The wrist has, anatomically, two movements ; the 
one up and down, the other from side to side ; 
and to the latter power, by much the least, the 
weight of the bat must be proportioned. " My 
old-fashioned bat," said Mr. E. H. Budd, "weighed 
nearly three pounds, and Mr. Ward's a pound 
more." 

The Off-hit, here intended, is made with 
upright bat, where the horizontal cut were dan- 
gerous or uncertain. It may be made with any 
off-ball, one or two feet wide of the wicket. The 
left shoulder must be well over the ball, and this 
can only be effected by crossing, as in Jig. 3. p. 159., 
left leg over. This, one of the best players 
agrees, is a correct hit, provided the ball be 
pitched well up ; otherwise he would apply the 
(Cut : but the cut serves only when a ball rises ; 
and I am unwilling to spare one that comes in 
near the ground. 

This upright off-hit, with left leg crossed over, 
may be practised with a bat and ball in the path 
of a field. You may also devise some " Chamber 
Practice," without any ball, or with a soft ball 
suspended — not a bad in-door exercise in cold 



158 



THE CEICKET FIELD. 



weather. When proficient, you will find that 
you have only to hit at the ball, and the balance- 
foot will naturally cross over and adjust itself. 

In practising with a bowler, I have often fixed 
a fourth stump, about six inches from off-stump, 
and learnt to guard it with upright bat. Experto 
crede, you may learn to sweep with almost an 
upright bat balls as much as two feet to the Off. 
But this is a hit for balls requiring back play, 
but 

Coyer-hit is the hit for over-pitched off-balls. 
Come forward hard to meet an off-ball ; and then, 
as your bat moves in one line, and the ball meets 
it in another, the resultant will be Cover-hit. By 
no means turn the bat : a full face is not only 
safe but effective. 

With all off-hits beware of the bias of the ball 
to the off, and play well over the ball — very dif- 
ficult for young players. Never think about what 
off- hits you can make, unless you keep the ball 
safely down. 

The fine square leg-hit is similar to cover-hit, 
though on the other side. To make cover-hit 
clean, and not waste power against the ground, 
you must take full advantage of your height, and 
play the bat well down on the ball from your hip, 
timing nicely, eye still on the ball, and inclining 
the bat neither too little nor too much. 

The Forward Cut, a name by which I would 



FORWARD CUT, 



159 



distinguish another off-hit, is a hit made by- 
Butler, Guy, Dakin, Parr, and indeed especially 
by the Nottingham men, who, Clarke thinks, " hit 
all round them" better than men of any other 
county (see fig. 3.). The figures being fore- 
shortened as seen by the bowler, the artist un- 
willingly sacrifices effect to show the correct 



Fig. 3. 




position of the feet. This hit may be made from 
balls too wide and too low for the backward cut. 



160 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Cross the left leg over, watch the ball from its 
pitch, and you may make off-hits from balls low 
or cut balls high (unless very high, and then you 
have time to drop the bat) with more commanding 
power than in any other position. Some good 
players do not like this crossing of left foot, 
preferring the cutting attitude of fig. 3. ; but I 
know from experience and observation, that there 
is not a finer or more useful hit in the field; 
for, if a ball is some two feet to the Off, it 
matters not whether over-pitched or short-pitched, 
the same position, rather forward, equally applies. 

The Forward Cut sends the ball between Point 
aril Middle-wicket, an open part of the field, and 
even to Long-field sometimes : no little advantage. 
Also, it admits of much greater quickness. You 
may thus intercept forward, what you would be 
too late to cut back. 

To learn it, fix a fourth stump in the ground, 
one foot or more wide to the Off ; practise care- 
fully keeping right foot fixed, and crossing left 
over, and preserve the cutting attitude ; and this 
most brilliant hit is easily acquired. 

When you play a ball Off, do not lose your 
balance and stumble awkwardly one foot over the 
other, but end in good form, well on your feet. 
Even good players commit this fault; also, in 
playing back some players look as if they would 
tumble over their wicket. 



THE CUT. 



161 



The Cut is generally considered the most de- 
lightful hit in the game. The Cut proper is made 
by very few. Many make Off-hits, but few " cut 
from the bails between short slip and point with 
a late horizontal bat — cutting, never by guess but 
always by sight, at the ball itself ; the cut apply- 
ing to rather short-pitched balls, not actually long 
hops; and that not being properly a cut which is 
in advance of the point." Such is the definition 
of Mr. Bradshaw, whom a ten years' retirement 
has not prevented from being known as one of 
the best hitters of the day. 

The attitude of cutting is faintly given (because 
foreshortened) in Jig. 4. This represents a cut at 
rather a wide ball ; and a comparison of Jigs. 3. 
and 4. will show that, with rather wide Off-balls, 
the Forward Cut is the better position ; for you 
more easily intercept balls before they are out of 
play. Right leg would be thrown back rather 
than advanced, were the ball nearer the wicket. 
Still, the attitude is exceptional. Look at the 
other figures, and the cutter alone will appear with 
right foot shifted. Compare Jig. 1. with the other 
figures, and the change is easy, as in the left foot 
alone ; but, compare it with the cuts {figs. 4. and 
5.), and the whole position is reversed: right 
shoulder advanced, and right foot shifted. There 
is no ball that can be cut which may not be hit 
by one of the other Off-hits already mentioned, 

M 



162 THE CRICKET FIELD. 

Fig. 4. 




and that with far greater certainty, though not 
with so brilliant an effect. Pilch and many of 
the steadiest and best players never make the 
genuine cut. u Mr. Felix," says Clarke, " cuts 
splendidly ; but, in order to do so, he cuts before 
he sees the ball, and thus misses two out of three.' 5 
Neither do I believe that any man will reconcile 
the habitual straight play and command of off- 
stump, which distinguishes Pilch, with a cutting 
game. Each virtue, even in Cricket, has its ex- 
cess: fine Leg-hitters are apt to endanger the 



THE CUT. 



163 



leg-stump; fine Cutters, the Off. For, the Cutter 
must begin to take up his altered position so soon, 
that the idea must be running in his head almost 
while the ball is being delivered ; then, the first 
impulse brings the bat at once out of all defensive 
and straight play. Eight shoulder involuntarily 
starts back; and, if at the wrong kind of ball, 
the wicket is exposed, and all defence at an end. 
But with long-hops there is time enough to cut ; 
the difficulty is with good balls : and, to cut them, 
not by guess but, by sight. Fig. 5. represents a 
cut at a ball nearer the wicket, the right foot 
being drawn back to gain space. 

So much for the abuse of Cutting. If the ball 
does not rise, there can be no Cut, however loose 
the bowling ; though, with the other Off-hits, two 
or three might be scored. The most winning 
game is that which plays the greatest number 
of balls — an art in which no man can surpass 
Baldwinson of Yorkshire. Still a first-rate player 
should have a command of every hit : a bowler 
may be pitching uniformly short, and the balls 
may be rising regularly : in this case, every one 
would like to see a good Cutter at the wicket. 

To learn the Cut, suspend a ball from a string 
and a beam, oscillating backwards and forwards 
— place yourself as at a wicket, and experiment- 
alise. You will find : — 

1. You have no power in Cutting, unless you 

M 2 



164 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Fig. 5. 




/ 



Cut late — " off the bails : " then only can you use 
the point of your bat. 

2. You have no power, unless you turn on the 
basis of your feet, and front the ball, your back 
being almost turned upon the bowler, at the 
moment of cutting. 

3. Your muscles have very little power in Cut- 
ting quite horizontally, but very great power in 
Cutting down on the ball, 



CUTTING. 



165 



This agrees with the practice of the best 
players. Mr. Bradshaw follows the ball and cuts 
very late, cutting down. He drops his bat, appa- 
rently, on the top of the ball. Lord Frederick 
used to describe the old-fashioned Cutting as done 
in the same way. Mr. Bradshaw never Cuts but 
by sight ; and since, when the eye catches the 
rise of a good length ball, not a moment must be 
lost, his bat is thrown back just a little — an inch 
or two higher than the bails (he stoops a little for 
the purpose) — and dropped on the ball in an 
instant, by play of the wrist alone. Thus does 
he obtain his peculiar power of Cutting even 
fair-length balls by sight. 

Harry Walker, Robinson, and Saunders were 
the three great' Cutters; and they all Cut very 
late. But the under-hand bowling suited cutting 
(proper) better than round-armed; for all Off- 
hitting is not cutting. Mr. Felix gives wonderful 
speed to the ball, effected by cutting down, add- 
ing the weight of a descending bat to the free 
and full power of the shoulder : he would hardly 
have time for such exertion if he hit with the pre- 
cision of Mr. Bradshaw, and not hitting till he 
saw the ball. 

Lord Frederick found fault with Mr. Felix's 
picture of " the Cut," saying it implied force from 
the whirl of the bat ; whereas a cut should pro- 
ceed from wrists alone, descending with bat in 

M 3 



166 



THE CKICKET FIELD, 



hand, — precisely Mr. Bradshaw's hit. 61 Excuse 
me, my Lord," said Mr. Felix, " that's not a Cut, 
but only a pat" The said pat, or wrist play, I 
believe to be the only kind of cutting by sight, for 
good-length balls. 

To encourage elegant play, and every variety 
of hit, we say practise each kind of cut, both 
Lord Frederick's pat and Mr. Felix's off-hit, and 
the Nottingham forward cut, with left leg over ; 
but beware of using either in the wrong place. 
A man of one hit is easily managed. A good off- 
hitter should send the ball according to its pitch, 
not to one point only, but to three or four. Old 
Fennex used to stand by Saunders, and say no 
hitting could be finer — " no hitter such a fool — 
see, sir, they have found out his hit — put a man 
to stop his runs — still, cutting, nothing but cutting 

— why doesn't the man hit somewhere else?" So 
Avith Jarvis of Nottingham, a fine player and one 
of the best cutters of his day, when a man was 
placed for his cut, it greatly diminished his score. 
For off-balls we have given, Off-play to the slips 

— Cover hit — the Nottingham hit more towards 
middle wicket; and, the Cut between slip and 
point — four varieties. Let each have its proper 
place, till an old player can say, as Fennex said 
of Beldham, " He hit quick as lightning all round 
him. He appeared to have no hit in particular : 



LEG-HITTING. 



167 



you could never place a man against him : where 
the ball was pitched there it was hit away." 

Leg-hitting.— Besides the draw, there are 
two distinct kinds of leg-hits — one forward, the 
other back. The forward leg-hit is made, as in 
fig. 6., by advancing the left foot near the pitch 
of the ball, and then hitting down upon the ball 
with a free arm, the bat being more or less hori- 



Fig. 6. 




\ 



M 4 



168 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



zontal, according to the length of the ball. A 
ball so far pitched as to require little stride of left 
leg, will be hit with nearly a straight bat : a ball 
as short as you can stride to, will require nearly a 
horizontal bat. The ball vou can reach with 
straight bat, will go off on the principle of the 
cover*hit — the more square the better. But, 
when a ball is only just within reach, by using a 
horizontal bat, you know where to find the ball 
just before it has risen ; for, your bat covers the 
space about the pitch. If you reach far enough, 
even a shooter may be picked up ; and if a few 
inches short of the pitch, you may have all the 
joyous spring of a half- volley. The better pitched 
the bowling, the easier is the hit, if the ball be 
only a little to the leg. In using a horizontal bat, 
if you cannot reach nearer than about a foot from 
the pitch, sweep your bat through the line in 
which the ball should rise. Look at Jig. 7. 
p. 173. The bat should coincide with or sweep 
a fair bat's length of that dotted line. But if 
the point of the bat cannot reach to within a foot 
of the pitch, that ball must be played back. 

The Short-pitched Leg Ball needs no 
comment, save that, according as it is more or 
less to the wicket, you may, — 1. Draw it; 2. 
Play it by a new hit, to be explained, a Draw or 
glance outside your leg ; 3. You may step back 
on your wicket to gain space, and play it away to 



THE " BLIND SWIPE." 



169 



middle On, or cut it round, according to your 
sight of it. 

But in leg-hitting, beware of a " blind swipe," 
or that chance hit, by guess of where the ball will 
rise, which some make when the bat cannot pro- 
perly command the pitch. This blind hit is often 
made at a ball not short enough to play by sight 
back, nor long enough to command forward. Parr 
advances left foot as far as he can, and hits where 
the ball ought to be. But this he would hardly 
advise, except you can nearly command the pitch ; 
otherwise, a blind swing of the bat, although the 
best players are sometimes betrayed into it, is by 
no means to be recommended. 

Reader, do you ever make the square hit On ? 
Or, do you ever- drive a ball back from the leg- 
stump to long-field On ? Probably not. Clarke 
complains that this good old hit is gone out, 
and that one more man is thereby brought about 
the wicket. If you cannot make this hit, you have 
evidently a faulty style of play. So, practise 
diligently with leg-balls, till balls from two leg- 
stumps go to long-field On, and balls a little wide 
of leg-stump go nearly square ; and do not do this 
by a kind of push — much too common, — but by 
a real hit, left shoulder forward. 

Also, do you ever draw out of your ground in 
a leg-hit? Doubly dangerous is this — danger 
of stumping and danger of missing easy hits. If 



170 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



once you move your pivot foot, you lose that 
self-command essential for leg-hits. So, practise, 
in your garden or your room, the stride and swing 
of the bat, till you have learnt to preserve your 
balance. 

One of the best leg-hitters is Dakin : and his 
rule is : keep your right foot firm on your ground ; 
advance the left straight to the pitch, and as far 
as you can reach, and hit as straight at the pitch 
as you can, just as if you were hitting to long- 
field : as the lines of bat and ball form an angle, 
the ball will fly away square of itself. 

My belief is, the Wykehamists introduced the 
art of hitting leg-balls at the pitch. When, in 
1833, at Oxford, Messrs. F. B. Wright and Payne 
scored above sixty each off Lillywhite and Broad- 
bridge, it was remarked by the players, they had 
never seen their leg-hit before. Clarke says he 
showed how to make forward leg-hits at Notting- 
ham. For 3 the Nottingham men used to hit after 
leg-balls, and miss them, till he found the w r ay of 
intercepting them at the rise, and hitting square. 

And this will be a fair occasion for qualifying 
certain remarks which would appear to form what 
is aptly called a " toe-in-the-hole " player. 

When I spoke so strongly about using the 
right foot as a pivot, and the left as a balance 
foot, insisting, also, on not moving the right foot, 
I addressed myself not to proficients, but to 



STEPPING IN. 



171 



learners. Such is the right position for almost 
all the hits on the ball, and this fixing of the foot 
is the only way to keep a learner in his proper 
form. 

Experienced players — I mean those who have 
passed through the University Clubs, and aspire 
to be chosen in the Gentlemen's Eleven of All 
England — must be able to move each foot on 
its proper occasion, especially with slow bowling. 
Clarke says, " If I see a man set fast on his legs, 
I know he can't play my bowling." The reason 
is, as we shall explain presently, that the accurate 
hitting necessary for slow bowling requires not 
long reaching, but a short, quick action of the 
arms and wrists, and activity on the legs, to shift 
the body to suit this hitting in narrow compass. 

A practised player should also be able to go in 
to over-pitched balls, to give effect to his forward 
play. To be stumped out looks ill indeed ; still, 
a first-rate player should have confidence and 
coolness enough to bide his time, and then go 
boldly and steadily in and hit away. If you do 
go in, take care you go far enough, and as far as the 
pitch ; and, only go in to straight balls, for to those 
alone can you carry a full bat. And, never go in 
to make a free swing of the bat or tremendous 
swipe. Go in with a straight bat, not so much 
to hit, as to drive or block the ball hard away, or, 
as Clarke says, " to run the ball down." Step- 



172 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



ping in only succeeds with cool and judicious 
bitters, who have some power of execution. All 
young players must be warned that^ for any but a 
most practised player to leave his ground, is deci- 
dedly a losing game. 

Supposing the batsman knows how to move his 
right foot back readily, then, a long-hop to the leg 
admits of various modes of play, which I feel 
bound to mention, though not to recommend ; for, 
a first-rate player should at least know every hit: 
w T hether he will introduce it much or little into 
his game is another question. 

A leg-ball that can be played by sight is some- 
times played by raising the left leg. This is quite 
a hit of the old school, — of Sparkes and Fennex, 
for instance. Fennex's pupil, Fuller Pilch, com- 
monly makes this hit. Some first-rate judges — Cal- 
decourt among others — maintain it should never 
be made, but the Draw always used instead. 
Mr. Taylor found it a useful variety; for, before 
he used it, Wenman used to stump him from balls 
inside leg stump. For some lengths it has cer- 
tainly the advantage of placing the ball in a more 
open part of the field. 

Another way to play such balls is to step back 
with the right foot, and thus gain time and length 
of hop., and play the ball away, with short action 
of the arm and wrist, about middle On. This also 
is good, as making one hit more in your game. 



THE DRAW OUTSIDE LEG. 



173 



Fig. 7. 




Another hit there is which bears a name not 
very complimentary to Mr. James Dean ; though 
Sampson, of Sheffield, attains in a similar manner 
remarkable certainty in meeting leg-balls, and not 
inelegantly. My attention was first called to this 
hit by watching the play of Mr. E. Beeves, who 



174 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



makes it with all the ease and elegance of the 
Draw, of which I consider it one variety. Clarke 
says, that with a ball scarcely wide of your leg, 
he thinks it a good hit : I have, therefore, given a 
drawing of it in the last page. When done cor- 
rectly, and in its proper place, it is made by an 
easy and elegant movement of the wrists, and 
looks as pretty as the Draw ; but this kind of 
forward play, which takes an awkward ball at its 
rise and places it on the On-side, however useful 
to Sampson of Sheffield and the very few who 
introduce it in its proper place, — this is a hit 
which nascitur non jit> must come naturally, as a 
variety of forward play. To study it, makes a 
poking game, and spoils the play of hundreds. So, 
beware how you practise the poke. 

sc The best way to score from short-pitched leg- 
balls," writes a very good hitter, " is to make a 
sort of sweep with the left foot, almost balancing 
yourself by the toe of the said left foot, and rest- 
ing chiefly on the right foot, — at the same time 
drawing yourself upright and retiring towards the 
wicket. This of course is all one movement. In 
this position you make the heel of your right the 
pivot on which you turn, and move your left (but 
in a greater circle), so that both preserve the same 
parallel as at starting, and come round together ; 
and this I regard as the great secret of a batsman's 
movement in this hit. This gives you the power 



SHORT-PITCHED LEG-BALLS. 175 



of simply playing the ball down, if it rises much, 
and likewise of hitting hard if it keep within a foot 
of the ground. Both Sampson and Parr score very 
much in this style." 

However, with fast bowling, there are almost 
as many mistakes as runs made by hitting at 
these short-pitched leg-balls. Pilch, in his later 
days, would hardly meddle with them. 

Lastly, as to leg-balls, remember that almost 
any one can learn to hit clean up (square, espe- 
cially) ; the art is to play them down. Also, leg- 
hitting alone is very easy ; but, to be a good Off- 
player, and an upright and straight player, and 
yet hit to leg freely, is very rare. We know a 
fine leg-hitter who lost his leg-hit entirely when 
he learnt to play- better to the off. 



176 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



CHAP. VIII. 

HINTS AGAINST SLOW BOWLING. 

While our ideas on Slow Bowling were yet in 
a state of solution, they were, all at once, pre- 
cipitated and crystallised into natural order by 
the following remarks from a valued correspon- 
dent : — 

" I have said that Pilch was unequalled with 
the bat, and his great excellence is in timing the 
ball. No one ever mastered Lillywhite like 
Pilch ; because, in his forward play, he was not 
very easily deceived by that wary individual's 
repeated change of pace. He plays forward with 
his eye on, not only the pitch, but on the ball 
itself, being faster or slower in his advance by a 
calm calculation of time — a point too little con- 
sidered by some even of the best batsmen of the 
day. No man hits much harder than Pilch ; and, 
be it observed, hard hitting is doubly hard, in all 
fair comparison, when combined with that steady 
posture which does not sacrifice the defence of 
the wicket for some one favourite cut or leg-hit. 
Compare Pilch with good general hitters, who, at 



SLOW BOWLING. 



177 



the same time, guard their wicket, and I doubt if 
you can find from this select class a harder hitter 
in England." 

This habit of playing each ball by correct 
judgment of its time and merits has made Pilch 
one of the few who play Old Clarke as he should 
be played. He plays him back all day if he bowls 
short, and hits him hard all along the ground, 
whenever he overpitches ; and sometimes he will 
go in to Clarke's bowling, but not to make a 
furious swipe, but to " run him down " with a 
straight bat. This going in to Clarke's bowling 
some persons think necessary for every ball, for- 
getting that "discretion is the better part of" 
cricket ; the consequence is that many wickets 
fall from positive long hops. Almost every man 
who begins to play against Clarke appears to 
think he is in honour bound to hit every ball out 
of the field : and, every one who attempts it comes 
out saying, " What rubbish ! — no play in it ! " 
The truth being that there is a great deal of play 
in it, for it requires real knowledge of the game. 
You have curved lines to deal with instead of 
straight ones. " But, what difference does that 
make?" We shall presently explain. 

The amusing part is, that this cry of 6e What 
rubbish ! " has been going on for years, and still 
the same error prevails. Experience is not like 
anything hereditary : the generations of eels do 



178 



THE CEICKET FIELD. 



not get used to being skinned, nor do the genera- 
tions of men get tired of doing the same foolish 
thing. Each must suffer propria persona, and not 
by proxy. So, the gradual development of the 
human mind against Clarke's bowling is for the 
most part this: — first, a state of confidence in 
hitting every ball ; secondly, a state of disgust 
and contempt at what seems only too easy for a 
scientific player to practise ; and, lastly, a slowly 
increasing conviction that the batsman must have 
as much head as the bowler, with patience to 
play an unusual number of good lengths. 

Slow bowling is most effective when there is 
a fast bowler at the other end. It is very* puz- 
zling to alter your time in forward play from 
fast to slow, and slow to fast, every Over : so, 
Clarke and Wisden work well together. A 
shooter from a slow bowler is sometimes found 
even more difficult than one from a fast bowler : 
and this for two reasons ; first, because the bats- 
man is made up for slow time and less prepared 
for fast ; and, secondly, because a good slow ball 
is pitched further up, and, therefore, though the 
fast ball shoots quicker, the slow ball has the 
shorter distance to shoot into the wicket. 

Compare the several styles of bowling in the 
following diagram. A good length ball, you see, 
pitches nearer to the bat in proportion to the 
slowness of its pace. Wisden is not so fast, nor 



SLOW BOWLING COMPARED WITH FAST. 179 




Slow Shooters — Clarke's. 



1 — - ~ \ , 81 

Medium pace Shooters — Lilly white's. 

1 ~ \ . I 

Fast Shooters — Wisden s. 

is Clarke as slow, practically, as they respectively 
appear. With Wisden's straight lines, it is far 
easier to calculate where the ball will pitch, 
than with the curved lines and dropping balls of 
Clarke; and when Wisden's ball has pitched, 
though its pace is quicker, the distance it has to 
come is so much longer, that Clarke, in effect, is 
not so much slower, as he may appear. Lilly- 
white and Hilly er are of a medium kind ; having 

N 2 



180 



THE CBICKET FIELD. 



partly the quickness of Wisden's pace, and partly 
the advantage of Clarke's curved lines and near 
pitch. From this diagram it appears that the 
slower the bowling the nearer it may be pitched, 
and the less the space the bat can cover ; also, the 
more difficult is the ball to judge ; for, the curved 
line of a dropping ball is very deceiving to the 
eye. 

In speaking of Clarke's bowling, men commonly 
imply that the slowness is its only difficulty. 
Now a ball cannot be more difficult for hand or 
eye because it moves slowly. No ; the skrwer 
the easier ; but the difficulty arises from the fol- 
lowing qualities, wholly distinct from the pace, 
though certainly it is the slowness that renders 
those qualities possible : — 

1st. Clarke's lengths are more accurate. 

2dly. He can vary his pace unobserved, with- 
out varying his action or delivery. 

3dly. More of his balls would hit the wicket. 

4thly. A slow ball must be played : it will not 
play itself. 

5thly. Clarke can more readily take advantage 
of each man's weak point. 

6thly. Slow bowling admits of more bias. 

7thly. The length is more difficult to judge, 
owing to the curved lines. 

8thly. It requires the greatest accuracy in 
hitting. You must play at the ball with short, 



DIFFICULTY OF SLOW BOWLING. 181 



quick action where it actually is, and not by- 
calculation of its rise, or where it will be. 

9thly. Slow balls can be pitched nearer to the 
bat, affording a shorter sight of the rise. 

lOthly. Catches and chances cf stumping are 
more frequent, and less likely to be missed. 

llthly. The curved lines and the straightness 
preclude cutting, and render it dangerous to cross 
the ball in playing to leg. 

One artifice of Clarke, and of all good slow 
bowlers, is this: to begin with a ball or two 
which may easily be played back ; then, with a 
much higher toss and slower pace, as in the 
diagram, he pitches a little short of the usual 
spot. If the batsman's eye is deceived as to the 
distance, he at once plays forward to a length 
w T hich is at all times dangerous ; and, as it rises 
higher, the play becomes more dangerous still. 

The difficulty of "going in" to such bowling as 
Clarke's, depends on this : — 

The bat is only four inches and a quarter wide : 
call half that width two inches of wood. Then, 
you can only have two inches to spare for the 
deviation of your hit; therefore, if a ball turns 
about two inches, while you are in the act of 
hitting, the truest hitter possible must miss. 

The obvious conclusion from these facts is, — 

1st. That you can safely go in to such balls 
only as are straight, otherwise you cannot present 

N 3 



182 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



a full bat ; and, only when you can step right up 
to the pitch of the ball, otherwise, by a twist it will 
escape you ; and slow balls turn more than fast in 
a given space. 2ndly. You can only go in to such 
lengths as you can easily and steadily command : 
a very long step, or any unusual hurry, will 
hardly be safe with only the said two inches of 
wood to spare. 

Now the question is, with what lengths, against 
such bowling as Clarke's, can you step in steadily 
and safely, both as far as the pitch, and with 
full command of hand and eye ? Remember, you 
cannot begin your step till you have judged the 
length ; and this, with the curved line of a slow 
dropping ball, you cannot judge till within a little 
of its groundings so, the critical time for decision 
and action is very brief, and, in that brief space, 
how far can you step secure of all optical illusions, 
for, Clarke can deceive you by varying both the 
pace and the curve of his ball? — Go and try. 
Again, when you have stepped in, where will you 
hit? On the ground, of course, and straight. 
And where are the men placed ? Besides, are you 
aware of the difficulty of interchanging the steady 
game with right foot in your ground, with that 
springy and spasmodic impulse which characterises 
this "going in?" At a match at Lord's in 1849, 
I saw Brockwell score some forty runs with many 
hits off Clarke : he said to me, when he came out, 



STEPPING m TO SLOW BALLS. 



183 



€C Clarke cannot bowl his best to me ; for, some- 
times, I go in to the pitch of the ball, when pitched 
well up, and hit her away ; at other times, I make 
a feint, and then stand back, and so Clarke gets 
off his bowling." He added, "the difficulty is to 
keep your temper and not to go in with a wrong 
ball." This, I believe, is indeed a difficulty, — a 
much greater difficulty than is commonly imagined. 
My advice to all players who have not made a 
study of the art of going in, and have not fully 
succeeded on practising days, is, by no means to 
attempt it in a match. It is not so easy as it 
appears. You will find Clarke, or any good slow 
bowler, too much for you. — "But, supposing I 
should stand out of my ground, or start before 
the ball is out of the bowler's hand ?" Why, with 
an unpractised bowler, especially if in the con- 
strained attitude of the overhand delivery, this 
manoeuvre has succeeded in producing threes and 
fours in rapid succession. But Clarke would 
pitch over your head, or send in a quick under- 
hand ball a little wide, and you w r ould be stumped ; 
and Wisden would probably send a fast toss about 
the height of your shoulder, and, being prepared 
to play perfectly straight at the pitch, you would 
hardly raise your bat in time to keep a swift toss 
out of the wicket-keeper's hands. 

The difficulty of curvilinear bowling is this : — 
1st. As in making a catch, every fieldsman finds 

N 4 



184 



THE CSICKET FIELD 



that, in proportion as the ball has been hit up in 
the air, it is difficult to judge where to place 
himself: by the same law of sight, a fast ball 
that goes almost point-blank to its pitch, is far 
easier to judge than a slow ball that descends in a 
curve. 

2ndly. As the slow ball reaches the ground at 
a greater angle, it must rise higher in a given 
space ; so, if the batsman misjudges the pitch of a 
slow ball by a foot, he will misjudge the rise to a 
greater extent than with a fast ball, which rises less 
abruptly. Hence, playing forward is less easy 
with slow, than with fast, bowling. 

3dly. As to timing the ball, all the eye can 
discern in a body moving directly towards it^ is 
the angle with the ground : to see the curve of 
a dropping ball you must have a side view. The 
man at Point can see the curve clearly ; but not so 
the batsman. Consequently, the effect of the 
curve is left out in the calculation^ and the exact 
time of the ball's approach is, to that extent, 
mistaken. Every one knows the difficulty of 
making a good half-volley-hit off a slow ball, 
because the timing is so difficult: great speed 
without a curve is less puzzling to the eye than a 
curvilinear movement, however slow. It were 
odd, indeed, if it were harder to hit a slow than a 
fast ball. No. It is the curve that makes diffi- 
cult what of its pace alone would be easy. All 



SLOW BOWLING. 



185 



forward play, with slow bowling, is beset with the 
great difficulty of allowing for the curve. And 
what style of play does this suggest? Why, 
precisely what Clarke has himself remarked, — 
namely, that to fix the right foot as for fast 
bowling, and play with long reach forward, does 
not answer. You must be quick on your feet, 
and, by short quick action of the arms, hit the 
ball actually as it is, and not as you calculate it 
will be a second later. This is the system of 
men who play Clarke best ; of Mr. Vernon, of 
Fuller Pilch, of Hunt of Sheffield, and of C. 
Browne: though these men also dodge Clarke; 
and, pretending sometimes to go out, deceive him 
into dropping short, and so play their heads 
against his. The best bowling is sometimes hit; 
but I have not heard of any man who found it 
much easier to score off Clarke than off other 
good bowlers. To play Clarke " on any fore- 
gone conclusion" is fatal. Every ball must be 
judged by its respective merits and played ac- 
cordingly. 

Again, as to cutting, or in any way crossing, 
these dropping or curvilinear balls. As a slow 
ball rises twice as much in a given space as a fast 
ball, of course the chances are greater that the 
>at will not cover the ball at the point at which, 
by anticipation, you cut. If you cut at a fast 
ball, the height of its rise is nearly uniform, and 



186 



THE CHICKET FIELD. 



its course a straight line : so, most men like very 
fast bowling, because, if the hand is quick enough, 
the judgment is not easily deceived, for the ball 
moves nearly in straight lines. But, in cutting 
or in crossing a slow ball, the height of the rise 
varies enough to produce a mistake while the bat 
is descending on the ball. 

Once more, in playing at a ball after its rise, a 
safe and forcible hit can only be made in two 
ways. You must either meet the ball with full 
and straight bat, or cut horizontally across it. 
Now, as slow balls generally rise too high for a 
hard hit with perpendicular bat, you are reduced 
generally to the difficulties of cutting or back 
play. Add to all this, that the bias from the hand 
and from the inequalities of the ground is much 
greater, and also that a catch, resulting from a feeble 
hit and the ball spinning off the edge of the bat, 
remains commonly so long in the air that every 
fieldsman can cover double his usual quantity 
of ground, and then we shall cease to wonder 
that the best players cannot score fast off slow 
bowling. 



187 



CHAP. IX. 

BOWLING. — AN HOUR WITH u OLD CLARKE." 

In cricket wisdom Clarke is truly " Old : " what 
he has learnt from anybody, he learnt from Lam- 
bert. But he is a man who thinks for himself, 
and knows men and manners, and has many wily 
devices, " splendide mendax" " I beg your par- 
don, sir," he one day said to a gentleman taking 
guard, "but ain't you Harrow?" — "Then we 
shan't want a man down there," he said, address- 
ing a fieldsman ; " stand for the 6 Harrow drive, 5 
between point and middle w T icket." 

The time to see Clarke is on the morning of a 
match. While others are practising, he walks 
round with his hands under the flaps of his coat, 
reconnoitring his adversaries' wicket. 

" Before you bowl to a man, it is worth some- 
thing to know what is running in his head. 
That gentleman," he will say, cc is too fast on his 
feet, so, as good as ready money to me : if he 
doesn't hit he can't score ; if he does I shall have 
him directly." 

Going a little further, he sees a man lobbing to 



188 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



another, who Is practising stepping in. ** There, 
sir, is 6 practising to play Clarke/ that is very- 
plain ; and a nice mess, you will see, he will make 
of it. Ah ! my friend, if you do go in at all, you 
must go in further than that, or my twist will 
beat you ; and, going in to swipe round, eh ! 
Learn to run me down with a straight bat, and I 
will say something to you. But that wouldn't 
score quite fast enough for your notions. Going 
in to hit round is a tempting of Providence." 

" There, that man is purely stupid : alter the 
pace and height with a dropping ball, and I shall 
have no trouble with him. They think, sir, it is 
nothing but 6 Clarke's vexatious pace : ' they know 
nothing about the curves. With fast bowling, 
you cannot have half my variety ; and when you 
have found out the weak point, where's the fast 
bowler that can give the exact ball to hit it ? 
There is often no more head-work in fast bowling 
than there is in the catapult : without head-work 
I should be hit out of the field." 

" A man is never more taken aback than when 
he prepares for one ball, and I bowl him the con- 
trary one : there was Mr. Nameless, the first time 
he came to Nottingham, full of fancies about 
playing me. The first ball, he walked some yards 
out to meet me, and I pitched over his head, so 
near his wicket, that, thought I ? that bird won't 
fight again. Next ball, he was a little cunning, 



claeke's notions of bowling. 189 



and made a feint of coming out, meaning, as I 
guessed, to stand back for a long hop ; so I 
pitched right up to him ; and he was so bent 
upon cutting me away, that he hit his own wicket 
down ! " 

Look at diagrams page 179. Clarke is there 
represented as bowling two balls of different 
lengths ; but the increased height of the shorter 
pitched ball, by a natural ocular delusion, makes 
it appear as far pitched as the other. If the bats- 
man is deceived in playing at both balls by the 
same forward play, he endangers his wicket. 
" See, there," continues Clarke, " that gentle- 
man's is a dodge certainly, but not a new one 
either. He does step in, it is true ; but while 
hitting at the ball, he is so anxious about getting 
back again, that his position has all the danger of 
stepping in, and none of its advantages." 

" Then there is Mr. ," naming a great 

man struggling with adversity. " He gives a 
jump up off his feet, and thinks he is stepping 
ih, but comes flump down just where he was 
before." 

" Pilch plays me better than any one. But he 
knows better than to step in to every ball, or to 
stand fast every ball. He plays steadily, and dis- 
criminates, waiting till I give him a chance, and 
then makes the most of it." 

Bowling consists of two parts : there is the 



190 



THE CKICKET FIELD. 



mechanical part, and the intellectual part. First, 
you want the hand to pitch where you please, and 
then the head to know where to pitch, according 
to the player. 

To learn the Art of Bowling.— 1. First, 
consult w T ith some Lillywhite or Wisden, and fix 
on one, and one only, plan of holding the ball, 
manageable pace, and general style of delivery* 
Consult and experiment till you have chosen the 
style that suits the play of your muscles and your 
strength. If you choose a violent and laborious 
style, you will certainly become tired of it : but a 
style within your strength will be so delightful 
that you will be always practising. Secondly, 
having definitely chosen one form and style of 
bow T ling, the next thing is to fix it and form it 
into a habit : for, on the law of Habit a bowler's 
accuracy entirely depends. 

To form a steady habit of bow T ling, the nerves 
and muscles being a very delicate machinery, you 
must be careful to use them in one way, and one 
way only ; for then they will come to serve you 
truly and mechanically : but, even a few hours 
spent in loose play — in bowling with few steps 
or many, or with a new mode of delivery — will 
often establish conflicting habits, or call into 
action a new set of muscles, to interfere with 
the muscles on which you mainly depend. Many 
good players (including the most destructive of the 



HINTS ON BOWLING. 



191 



Gentleman's Eleven !) have lost their bowling by 
these experiments : many more have been thrown 
back when near perfection. Therefore, 

2. Never bow 7 l a single ball but in your chosen 
and adopted form and style — with the same steps, 
and w 7 ith the ball held in the same way. " If 
these seem small things, habit is not a small 
thing." Also, never go on when you are too tired 
to command your muscles ; else, you will be twist- 
ing yourself out of form, and calling new and 
conflicting muscles into action. 

As to Pace, if your strength and stature is little, 
your pace cannot be fast. Be contented with 
being rather a slow bowler. By commencing 
slow T ly, if any pace is in you, it will not be lost ; 
but by commencing fast, you will spoil all. 

3. Let your carriage be upright though easy ; 
and start composedly from a state of perfect rest. 
Let your steps, especially the last, be short ; and, 
for firm foothold, and to avoid shaking yourself 
or cutting up the ground, learn to descend not on 
the heel but more on the toe and flat of the foot, 
and so as to have both feet in the line of the 
opposite wicket. For, 

4. A golden rule for straight bowling is to 
present, at delivery, a full face to the opposite 
wicket ; the shoulders being in the same line, or 
parallel with, the crease. That is the moment to 
quit the ball — a moment sooner and you will 



192 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



bowl wide to the leg, a moment later and you 
will bowl wide to the Off. Observe Wisden and 
Hillyer. They deliver just as their front is square 
with the opposite wicket. They look well at 
their mark, and bowl before they have swung too 
far round for the line of sight to be out of the 
line of the wicket. Observe, also, bad bowlers, and 
you will see a uniformity in their deviation : some 
bowl regularly too much to the On ; others as 
regularly to the Off. Then, watch their shoulders ; 
and you will recognise a corresponding error in 
their delivery. The wonder is that such men 
should ever bowl straight. 

Also, adopt a run of from five to seven yards. 
Let your run be quite straight ; not from side to 
side, still less crossing your legs as you run. 

5. " Practise," says Lilly white, " both sides of 
the wicket. To be able to change sides, is highly 
useful when the ground is worn, and it often 
proves puzzling to the batsman." 

6. Hold the ball in the fingers, not in the 
palm, and always the same way. If the tips of 
the finders touch the seam of the ball, it will 
assist in the spin. The little finger " guides " the 
ball in the delivery. 

7. The essence of a good delivery is to send 
the ball forth rotating, or turning on its own axis. 
The more spin you give the bail, the better the 
delivery ; because then the ball will twist, rise 



HINTS ON BOWLING. 



193 



quickly, or cut variously, the instant it touches 
the ground. 

8. This spin must not proceed from any con- 
scious action of the fingers, but from some me- 
chanical action of the arm and wrist. Clarke is 
not conscious of any attempt to make his hall 
spin or twist : a certain action has become habitual 
to him. He may endeavour to increase this ten- 
dency sometimes ; but no bowling could be uni- 
form that depended so much on the nerves, or on 
such nice feeling as this attention to the fingers 
would involve. A bowler must acquire a certain 
mechanical swing, with measured steps and uni- 
form action and carriage of the body, till at 
length, as with a gun, hand and eye naturally 
go together. In -rowing, if you look at your oar, 
you cut crabs. In skating, if you look at the ice 
and think of your steps, you lose the freedom and 
the flow of your circles. So, with bowling, having 
decided on your steps and one mode of delivery, 
you must practise this alone, and think more of 
the wicket than of your feet or your hand. 

To assist the spin of the ball, a good bowler will 
not stop short, but will rather follow the ball, or, 
give way to it, after delivery, for one or two 
steps. Some bowlers even continue the twisting 
action of the hand after the ball has left it. 

9. Commence with a very low delivery. Cob- 
bett, and others of the best bowlers, began under- 

o 



194 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



hand. The lower the hand, the more the spin, 
and the quicker the rise. Unfair or throwing 
bowlers never have a first-rate delivery. See 
how easy to play is a throw, or a ball from a 
catapult ; and simply because the ball has then no 
spin. Redgate showed how bowling maybe most 
fair and most effective. No man ever took Pilch's 
wicket so often. His delivery was easy and 
natural ; he had a thorough command of his arm, 
and gave great spin to the ball. In Kent against 
England, at Town Mailing, he bowled the finest 
Over on record. The first ball just grazed Pilch's 
wicket ; the second took his bails ; the third ball 
levelled Mynn, and the fourth Stearman ; three 
of the best bats of the day. 

10. Practise a little and often. If you over- 
fatigue the muscles, you spoil their tone for a 
time. Bowling, as we said of batting, must 
become a matter of habit ; and habits are formed 
by frequent repetition. Let the bowlers of Eton, 
Harrow, and Winchester resolve to bowl, if it be 
but a dozen balls, every day, w r et or fine. Inter- 
mission is very prejudicial. 

1 1. The difficulty is to pitch far enough. Com- 
mence, according to your strength, eighteen or 
nineteen yards, and increase to twenty-two by 
degrees. Most amateurs bowl long hops. 

12. Seek accuracy more than speed: a man of 
fourteen stone is not to be imitated by a youth of 



HIXTS ON BOWLING. 



195 



eight stone. Many batsmen like swift bowlings 
and why ? Because the length is easier to judge ; 
the lines are straighter for a cut ; the ball wants 
little accuracy of hitting ; fast bowlers very rarely 
pitch quite as far even as they might, for this 
requires much extra power ; fast balls twist less 
in a given space than slow balls, and rarely in- 
crease their speed at the rise in the same propor- 
tion as slow balls ; fast bowling gives fewer 
chances that the fieldsman can take advantage of, 
and admits generally of less variety; fewer fast 
balls are pitched straight, and fewer even of those 
would hit the wicket. You may find a Redgate, 
a Wisden, or a Mynn, who can bring fast bowl- 
ing under command for one or two seasons ; but 
these are exceptions too solitary to afford a pre- 
cedent. Even these men were naturally of a fast 
pace : swiftness was not their chief object. So, 
study accurate bowling, and let speed come of 
itself, 

So much for attaining the power of a bow T ler ; 
next to apply it. Not only practise, but study 
bowling : to pelt away mechanically, with the same 
lengths and same pace, is excusable in a catapult, 
but not in a man. — Can your adversary guard 
leg-stump or off-stump? Can he judge a length ? 
Can he allow for a curve? Can he play well 
over an off-ball to prevent a catch ? Can you 

o 2 



196 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



deceive him with time or pace ? Is he a young 
gentleman, or an old gentleman ? — 

" JEtatis cuju„ 'e notandi & int tibi mores." 

1. Pitch as near the bat as you can without 
being hit away. The bowler's chance is to compel 
back play with the shortest possible sight of the 
rise. 

2. If three good balls have been stopped, the 
fourth is often destructive, because the batsman's 
patience is exhausted : so take pains with the 
fourth ball of the Over. 

3. The straighter the ball, the more puzzling to 
the eye, and the more cramping to the hand of the 
batsman. 

4. Short- pitched balls are not only easier to 
hit, but have more scope for missing the wicket, 
though pitched straight. 

5. A free leg-hitter may often be put out by 
placing an extra man On side, and bowling 
repeatedly at leg-stump — only do not pitch very 
far up to him. Short-pitched leg-balls are the 
most difficult to hit, and produce most catches. 
By four or five attempts at leg-hitting, a man 
gains a tendency to swing round, and is off his 
straight play. 

6. Besides trying every variety of length, vary 
your pace to deceive the batsman in timing his 
play ; and practise the same action so as not to 



HINTS ON BOWLING. 



197 



betray the change of pace. Also, try once or 
twice a high dropping ball. 

7. Learn to bowl tosses and tices. With a 
stiff* player, before his eye is in, a toss often suc- 
ceeds ; but especially practise high lobs — a most 
useful variety of ball. In most Elevens there are 
one or two men with whom good round-hand 
bowling is almost thrown away. A first-rate 
player in Warwickshire was found at fault with 
lobs : and till he learnt the secret, all his fine play 
was at an end. 

8. Find out the farthest point to w T hich your 
man can play forward safely, and pitch just short 
of that point with every variety of pace and 
dropping balls. Lillywhite's delight is by pitch- 
ing alternately- just within and just out of the 
batsman's reach, " to catch him in two minds" 
Here we have positive metaphysics ! Just such 
a wary antagonist as Lillywhite is described by 
Virgil, — 

44 Ille, velut celsam oppugnat qui molibus urbem, 
]STimc hos, nunc illos aditus, omnemque pererrat 
Arte locum ; et variis adsultibus irritus urget." 

Of course aditus means an unguarded stump, and 
locum where to pitch the ball. 

9. A good under-hand ball of two high curves 
— that is, a dropping ball rising high — with a 
twist in to leg-stump, and a third man to On side, 

o 3 



198 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



is very effective, producing both catch and stump- 
ing. This is well worth trying, with four men 
on the On side, even if some great player is 
brought to win a country match. 

10. Most men have a length they cannot play. 
The fault of young bowlers is, they do not pitch 
far enough : they thus afford too long a sight of the 
ball. In the School matches and the University 
matches at Lord's, this is very observable, espe- 
cially with fast bowlers. 

11. The old-fashioned under-hand lobbing, if 
governed by a good head — dropping short when 
a man is coming out, and sometimes tossed higher 
and sometimes lower, — is a valuable change in 
most Elevens ; but it must be high and accurately 
pitched, and must have head-work in it. Put 
long-stop upon the On side, and bring long-slip 
nearer in ; and be sure that your long- fields stand 
far away. 

12. Lastly, the last diagram explains that cur- 
vilinear bowling (the effect of a moderate pace 
with a spin) gives the batsman a shorter sight of 
the rise than is possible w T ith the straighter lines 
of swift bowling. A man has nearly as much 
time to make up his mind and prepare for Wis den 
as for Clarke ; because, he can judge Wisden's 
ball much sooner, and, though the rise is faster, 
the ball has farther to come in. 

Theory of Bowling. — What characterises 



THEORY OF BOWLING. 



199 



a good delivery? If two men bowl with equal 
force and precision, why does the ball come in 
from the pitch so differently in respect of cutting, 
twisting, or abrupt rise ? 

6i Because one man gives the ball so much more 
rotatory motion on its own axis, or, so much more 
spin than the other." 

A throw, or the catapult which strikes the ball 
from its rest, gives no spin ; hence, the ball is 
regular in its rise, and easy to calculate. 

Cobbett gave a ball as much spin as possible : 
his fingers appeared wrapped round the ball : his 
wrist became horizontal: his hand thrown back 
at the delivery, and his fingers seemingly un- 
glued joint by joint, till the ball quitted the tips 
of them last, just as you would spin a top. Cob- 
bett's delivery designed a spin, and the ball at 
the pitch had new life in it. No bowling so fair, 
and with so little rough play or violence, ever 
proved more effective than Cobbett's. Hillyer is 
entitled to the same kind of praise. 

A spin is given by the fingers ; also, by turning 
the hand over in delivering the ball. 

A good ball has two motions ; one, straight, 
from hand to pitch ; the other, on its own axis. 

The effect of a spin on its own axis is best 
exemplified by bowling a child's hoop. Throw 
it from you without any spin, and away it rolls ; 
but spin or revolve it against the line of its flight 

O 4 



200 THE CRICKET FIELD. 



with great power, and the hoop no sooner touches 
the ground than it comes back to you. So great 
a degree of spin as this cannot possibly be given 
to a cricket ball ; but you see the same effect in 
the " draw-back stroke " at billiards. Revolve 
the hoop with less power, and it will rise abruptly 
from the ground and then continue its course — 
similar to that awkward and abrupt rise often 
seen in the bowling of Clarke among others. 

Thirdly, revolve the hoop as you bowl it, not 
against but in the line of its flight, and you will 
have its tendency to bound expended in an in- 
creased quickness forward. This exemplifies a low 
swimming ball, quickly cutting in and sometimes 
making a shooter. This is similar to the " fol- 
lowing stroke" at billiards, made by striking the 
ball high and rotating it in the line of the stroke. 

Such are the effects of a ball spinning or ro- 
tating vertically. 

Now try the effect of a spin from right to left, or 
left to right : try a side stroke at billiards ; the 
apparent angle of reflection is not equal to the 
angle of incidence; So a cricket ball, with lateral 
spin, will w T ork from Leg to Off, or Off to Leg, 
according to the spin. 

But why does not the same delivery, as it gives 
the same kind of spin, always produce the same 
vertical or lateral effect on a ball? In other 
words, how do you account for the fact that 



" A LITTLE LEARNING," ETC. 201 



(apart from roughness of ground) the same de- 
livery produces sometimes a contrary twist ? 
" Because the ball may turn in the air, and the 
vertical spin become lateral. The side which on 
delivery was under, may, at the pitch, be the 
upper side, or the upper side may become under, 
or any modification of either may be produced in 
conjunction with inequality in the ground." 

With throwing bowling, the ball comes from 
the ends of the fingers; why, then, does it not 
spin ? Because, unlike Cobbett's delivery, as ex- 
plained, wherein the ball left the fingers by 
degrees, and was sent spinning forth, the ball, in 
a throw, is held between fingers and thumb, 
which leave their hold at the same instant, with- 
out any tendency to rotate the ball. The fairer 
and more horizontal the delivery the more the 
fingers act, the more spin, and the more variety, 
after the pitch. A high and unfair delivery, it 
is true, is difficult from the height of the rise; 
otherwise it is too regular and too easy to cal- 
culate, to make first-rate bowling. 

A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING 

— and not least at cricket. The only piece of 
science I ever hear on a cricket field is this : 
ts Sir, how can that be? The angle of reflection 
must always be equal to the angle of incidence." 

That a cricketer should have only one bit of 
science, and that, as he applies it, a blunder, is 
indeed a pity. 



202 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



I have already shown that, in bowling, the 
apparent angle of reflection is rendered unequal 
to the angle of incidence by the rotatory motion 
or spin of the ball, and also by the roughness of 
the ground. 

I have now to explain that this law is equally 
disturbed in batting also ; and by attention to the 
following observations, many a forward player 
may learn so to adapt his force to the inclination 
of his bat as not to be caught out, even although 
(as often happens to a man's great surprise) he 
plays over the ball ! 

The effect of a moving body meeting another 
body moving, and that same body quiescent, is 
very different. To prove this, 

Fix a bat immoveably perpendicular in the 
ground, and suppose a ball rises to it from the 
ground in an angle of 45° as the angle of 
incidence ; then supposing the ball to have no 
rotatory motion, it will be reflected at an equal 
angle, and fall nearly under the bat. 

But supposing the bat is not fixed, but brought 
forcibly forward to meet that ball, then, according 
to the weight and force of the bat, the natural 
direction of the ball will be annihilated, and the 
ball will be returned, perhaps nearly point blank, 
not in the line of reflection, but in some other line 
more nearly resembling the line in which the bat 
is moved. 



THEORY OF BATTING. 



203 



If the bat were at rest, or only played very 
gently forward, the angles of reflection would not 
be materially disturbed, but the ball would return 
to the ground in proportion nearly as it rose from 
it; but by playing very hard forward, the bats- 
man annihilates the natural downward tendency 
of the ball, and drives it forward, perhaps, into 
the bowler's hands ; and then, fancying the laws 
of gravitation have been suspended to spite him, 
he walks back disgusted to the pavilion, and says, 
" No man in England could help being out then. 
I was as clean over the ball as I could be, and yet 
it went away as a catch ! " 

Lastly, as to "being out by luck," always con- 
sider whether, with the same adversaries, Pilch or 
Parr would have been so put out. Our opinion 
is, that could you combine the experience and 
science of Pilch with the hand and eye of Parr, 
luck would be reduced to an infinitesimal quantity. 

Fortuna fortes adjuvat, men of the best nerve 
have the best luck ; and nullum numen habes si sit 
prudentia, when a man knows as much of the game 
as we would teach him, he will find there is very 
little luck after all. Young players should not 
think about being out by chance : there is a cer- 
tain intuitive adaptation of play to circumstances, 
which, however seemingly impossible, will result 
from observation and experience, unless the idea 
of chance closes the ears to all good instruction. 



204 



THE CRICKET FIELD, 



CHAP. X. 

HINTS ON FIELDING. 

The essence of good fielding is, to start before 
the ball is hit, and to pick up and return straight 
to the top of the bails, by one continuous action. 
This was the old Wykehamist style — old, I hope 
not yet extinct, past revival — (thus had we 
written, March 1851, and three months after the 
Wykehamists won both their school matches at 
Lord's); — for, some twenty years since, the Wyke- 
hamist fielding was unrivalled by any school in 
England. Fifteen years ago Mr. Ward and, 
severally and separately, Cobbett instanced a 
Winchester Eleven as the first fielding they had 
ever seen at Lord's. And among this chosen 
number were the yet remembered names of B. 
Price, F. B. Wright, Knatchbull, and Meyrick. 
These hardy Trojans — for the ball never came 
too fast for them — commenced facing; out longr 
very long, before they were indulged in batting, 
and were forced to qualify, even for fagging, by 
practising till they could throw over a certain 
neighbouring barn, and were always in bodily fear 
of the pains and penalties of the middle stump if 
ever they missed a ball. But these days of the 



TRAINING AN ELEVEN. 



205 



voluntary system are far less favourable for field- 
ing. To become a good fieldsman requires perse- 
vering practice, with a " big fellow" to fag for who 
will expect a little more smartness than is always 
developed by pure love of the game. 

And now, Etonians, Harrovians, Wykehamists, 
I mention you alphabetically, a few words on 
training your Eleven for Lord's. Choose first 
your bowlers and wicket-keeper and long-stop ; 
these men you must have, though not worth a 
run : then if you have any batsmen decidedly 
superior, you may choose them for their batting, 
though they happen not to be first-rate fieldsmen. 
But in most school Elevens, after naming four or 
five men, among the other six or seven, it is mere 
chance who scores ; so let any great superiority in 
fielding decide the choice. I remember playing a 
match in which I had difficulty in carrying the 
election of a first-rate fieldsman against a second- 
rate bat. Now, the said batsman could not cer- 
tainly be worth above fourteen runs ; say seven 
more than the fieldsman. But the fieldsman, as 
it happened, made a most difficult catch, put one 
runner out, and, above all, kept the bowlers in 
good heart, during an uphill game, by stopping 
many hard hits. A bad fieldsman is a loose screw 
in your machinery ; giving confidence to the ad- 
versary, and taking the spirit out of his own 
party. Therefore, let the captain of an Eleven 



206 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



proclaim that men must qualify by fine fielding : 
and let him encourage the following exercises: — 

Put in two batsmen, whose play is not good 
enough to spoil, to tip and run. You will then 
find what very clean fielding is required to save 
one run, with men determined to try it. 

Let every man practise long-stop. 

Long-leg is a fieldsman nearly as essential as a 
good long- stop. A man who can run and throw 
well should make a long-leg his forte, and prac- 
tise judging distances for a long catch, covering 
ground both to right and left, neat handling, with 
allowance for the twist, and especially an arrow- 
like and accurate return. Nothing is so likely to 
put the runner out as a swift throw to the hands 
from a long distance. Aspire to foil the usual 
calculation, that, at a long distance, the runner 
can beat the throw. 

Let the wicket-keeper take his place, and while 
some one throws or hits, let him require the 
quickest and most accurate throwing. A ball 
properly thrown comes in like an arrow — no time 
being lost by soaring high in air. At short dis- 
tances, throw at once to the hands; where un- 
avoidable, with a long hop. But this hop should 
result from a low and skimming throw ; or, the ball 
will lose its speed. Practise throwing, without 
any flourish, by a single action of the arm. Any 
good fieldsman will explain, far better than our 



HINTS ON FIELDING. 



207 



pen, the art of picking up a ball in the only po- 
sition consistent with a quick return. A good 
throw often runs a man out ; an advantage very 
rarely gained without something superior in 
fielding. Young players should practise throwing, 
and remember never to throw in a long hop when 
they can throw to the hands. 66 Many a 6 run 
out/" says Mr. E. T. King, "has been lost by 
that injudicious practice of throwing long hops to 
the wicket-keeper, instead of straight, and, when 
necessary, hard, to his hands;" a practice that 
should be utterly reprobated, especially as many 
rising players will fancy it is the most correct, 
instead of the slowest, style of throwing. To 
throw in a long hop is only allowable when you 
might fail to throw a catch, and, which is worst 
of all, make too short a hop to the wicket- 
keeper. The Captain should keep an account of 
the best runners, throwers, clean pickers-up 5 and 
especially of men who can meet and anticipate the 
ball, and of those who deserve the praise given 
to Chatterton — " the safest pair of hands in 
England." 

So much for quick throwing ; but for a throw 
up from long-field, Virgil had a good notion of 
picking up and sending in a ball : — 

" Ille manu raptum trepida torquebat in hostem ; 
Altior assurgens, et cursu concitus, heros." 

JEn. xii. 901. 



208 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Here we have snatching up the ball with a 
quiver of the wrist, rising with the effort, and a 
quick step or two to gain power, — Meeting the 
ball requires a practice of its own, and is a charm- 
ing operation when you can do it ; for the same 
impetus with which you run in assists the quick- 
ness of your return. Practice will reveal the 
secret of running in ; only, run with your hands 
near the ground, so as not to have suddenly to 
stoop ; and, keep your eyes well open, not losing 
the ball for an instant. In fielding, as in batting, 
you must study all the varieties of balls, whether 
tices, half- volleys, or other lengths. 

A fast runner nascitur non Jit: still, practice 
does much, and especially for all the purposes of 
a fieldsman near the wicket. A spring and quick 
start are things to learn ; and that, both right and 
left : few men spring equally well with both feet. 
Anticipating the ball, and getting the momentum 
on the proper side, is everything in fielding ; and 
practice will enable a man to get his proper 
footing and quick shifting step. A good cricketer, 
like a good skater, must have free use of both 
feet : and of course a fine fieldsman must catch 
with both hands. 

Practise left-handed catching in a ring; also 
picking up with left : " Any one can catch with 
his right," says the old player; "now, my boy, 
let us see what you can do with your left." Try, 



THE SHOET BUN". 



209 



also, " slobbering " a ball, to see how many arts 
there are of recovering it afterwards. I need 
hardly say that jumping off your feet for a high 
catch, and rushing in to a ball and patting it up 
in the air and catching it the second attempt, are 
all arts of first-rate practitioners. 

Safe Hands. — Your hands should be on the 
rat-trap principle, — taking anything in, and 
letting nothing out again. Of course a ball has 
a peculiar feeling and spin off a bat quite different 
from a throw ; so practise accordingly. By habit 
hand and eye will go together : what the eye sees 
the right part of the hand will touch by a natural 
adjustment. There is a way of allowing for the 
spin of the ball in the air : as to its tendency at 
Cover, to twist especially to the left, this is too 
obvious to require notice. 

I am ashamed to be obliged to remind players, 
old as well as young, that there is such a thing as 
being a good judge of a short run: and I might 
hold up, as an example, an Honourable gentleman, 
who, though a first-rate long-stop and fine style 
of batting, has a distinct reputation for the one 
run. It is a tale, perhaps, thrice told, but more 
than thrice forgotten, that the partner should 
follow up the ball ; how many batsmen destroy the 
very life of the game by standing still like an 
extra umpire. Now, in a school Eleven, running 
notches can be practised with security, because 

p 



210 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



with mutual dependence; though I would warn 
good players that, among strangers in a country 
match, sharp running is a dangerous game. 

Symptoms of a Loser of Runs. — He never 
follows up the ball, but leans on his bat, or stands 
sociably by the umpire ; he has 20 yards to run 
from a state of rest, instead of 16, already on the 
move ; he is addicted to checks and false starts ; 
he destroys the confidence of his partner's running ; 
he condemns his partner to play his worst, because 
in a state of disgust ; he never runs and turns, but 
runs and stops, or shoots past his wicket, making 
ones for twos, and twos for threes ; he often runs 
a man out, and, besides this loss, depresses his 
own side, and animates the other ; he makes slow 
fieldsmen as good as fast ; having no idea of stealing 
a run for the least miss, he lets the fieldsmen 
stand where they please, saving both the two and 
the one; he lets the bowler coolly experiment 
with the wicket, when one run breaks the dan- 
gerous series, and destroys his confidence ; he 
spares the bowler that disturbance of his nerves 
which results from stolen runs and suspicion of 
his fieldsmen; he continues the depressing in- 
fluence of maiden Overs, when a Single would 
dispel the charm ; he deserves the name of the 
" Green man and Still" and usually commences 
his innings by saying, " Pray don't run me out, 
Sir," — " We'll run no risks whatever." When 
L here is a long hit, the same man will tear away 



THE ACTIVE RUNNER. 



211 



like mad, forgetting that both he and his partner 
(a heavier man perhaps) want a little wind left for 
the next ball. — O Ignavum pecus ! so-called 
" steady " players. Steady, indeed ! You stand 
like posts, without the least intuition of a run. 
The true cricketer runs while another is thinking 
of it ; indeed, he does not think — he sees and feels 
it is a run. He descries when the fieldsman has a 
long reach with his left hand, or when he must 
overbalance and right himself, or turn before he 
can throw. He watches hopefully the end of a 
long throw, or a ball backed carelessly up. — Bear 
witness, bowlers, to the virtue of a single run 
made sharply and vexatiously. Just as your plot 
is ripe, the batsmen change, and an ordinary 
length supersedes the very ball that would have 
beguiled your man. Is it nothing to break in 
upon the complete Over to the same man? And, 
how few the bowlers who repeat the length from 
which a run is made ! To repeat, passionless 
as the catapult, a likely length, hit or not hit, here 
it is the professional beats the amateur. — " These 
indirect influences of making each possible run," 
says Mr. R. T. King, are too little considered. 
Once I saw, to my full conviction, the whole 
fortune of a game changed by simply effecting 
two single runs ; one, while a man was threaten- 
ing to throw, instead of throwing, in the ball ; the 
other, while a ball was dribbling in from about 

p 2 



212 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



middle wicket. This one run ended thirteen 
maiden Overs, set the bowlers blaming the fields- | 
men at the expense, as usual, of their equanimity 
and precision, and proved the turning-point in a 
match till then dead against us. Calculate the 
effect of 6 stolen runs' on the powers of a bowler 
and his tactics as against a batsman, on the places 
of the fieldsmen, on their insecurity when hurried, 
and the spirit it puts into the one party and takes 
away from the other ; and add to this the runs 
evidently lost ; and, I am confident that the same 
Eleven that go out for sixty would, with better 
running, generally make seventy-five, and not un- 
commonly a hundred." 

Attend, therefore, to the following rules : — 
1. Back up every ball as soon as actually delivered, 
and as far as consistent with safe return. 2. 
When both men can see the ball, as before 
wicket, let the decision depend on the batsman, 
as less prepared to start, or on the elder and 
heavier man, by special agreement ; and let the 
decision be the partner's when the ball is behind 
the hitter. 3. Let men run by some call 
mere beckoning with strangers leads to fatal 
errors, backing up being mistaken for "run." 
« Yes," " no," or " run," " stop," are the words. 
" Away 9 ' sounds like « stay." 4. Let the hitter 
also remember that he can often back up a few 
yards in anticipation of a ball passing the fields- 



RULES FOR RUNNING. 



213 



man, 5. Let the first run be made quickly when 
there is the least chance of a second. 6. Let 
the ball be watched and followed up, as for a 
run, on the chance of a miss from w 7 icket-keeper 
or fieldsmen. So, never over-run your ground. 
7. Always run with judgment and attention, 
never beyond your strength : good running be- 
tween wickets does not mean running out of 
wind, to the suffusion of the eye and the trembling 
of the hand, though a good batsman must train 
for good wind. Henry Davis of Leicester was 
fine as ever in practice, when too heavy to run, 
and therefore to bat, in a game. The reason of 
running out and losing runs is, generally, the 
want of an established rule as to w r ho decides the 
run. How rarely do we see a man run out but 
from hesitation ! How often does a man lose his 
chance of safety by stopping to judge what is his 
partner's ball ! Let cricketers observe some rule 
for judging the run. There will then be no 
doubt who is to blame, — though, to censure the 
batsman because his partner is run out, when that 
partner is not backing up, is too bad. Let the 
man who has to decide bear all the responsibility 
if his partner is out ; only, let prompt obedience 
be the rule. When a man feels he must run 
because called, he will take more pains to be 
ready ; and, when once it is plain that a batsman 
has erred in judgment and lost one wicket of his 

p 3 



214 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



eleven, he will, if worth anything, make a study 
of running, and avoid so unpleasant a reflection 
for the future. Fancy such a mem. as this : — 
" Pilch run out because Rash hesitated," or e< Rash 
run out because when the hitter called he was 
not backing up." 

These and many other ideas on this most essen- 
tial, yet most neglected, part of the game, I shall 
endeavour to illustrate by the following compu- 
tation of runs which might have been added to an 
innings of 100. 

Suppose, therefore, 100 runs scored; 90 by 
hits, 4 by wide balls, and 6 by byes and leg 
byes — the loss is commonly as follows : — 

1. Singles lost from hits - about 10 

2. Ones instead of twos, by not making the 

former run quickly and turning for a second, 
but over-running ground and stopping 

3. Runs that might have been stolen from balls 

dropped and slovenly handled 

4. Loss from fieldsmen standing where they 

please, and covering more ground than they 
dare do with sharp runners 

5. Loss from not having those misses which re- 

sult from hurrying the field 

6. Loss from bowlers not being ruffled, as they 

would be if feeling the runs should be 
stopped - - - - 

7. Extra loss from byes not run (with the least 

" slobbering " the runners may cross — 
though Dean is cunning) - 



„ 4 
„ 3 




„ 6 



COMPUTATION OF LOST EUNS. 



215 



8. From having draws and slips stopped, which 

long-stop could not stop if nearer in 

9. One man run out - 

10. Depressing influence of the same 

11. From not having the only long-stop disgusted 

and hurried into missing everything 

12. From not having the adversary ail wild by 

these combined annoyances 

Total - 

13. Loss from adversary playing better when 

going in against a score of 100 than against 
152 ----- 

Now, though I have put down nothing for four 
sources of loss, not the less material because hard 
to calculate, the difference between good runners 
and bad seems to be above half the score. That 
many will believe me I can h; rdly expect; but, 
before they contradict, let them watch and reckon 
for themselves, where fielding is not first-rate. 

It w r as only after writing as above that I read 
that in "North v. South," 1851, the North lost 
six wickets, and the South two, by running out ! 
In the first Gentlemen and Players' match, of 
the same year, it was computed that one man, 
who made a long score, actually lost as many runs 
as he made ! In choosing an eleven, such men 
should be marked, and the loser of runs avoided 
on the same principle as a bad fieldsman. Reckon 
not only the runs a man may make, but the runs 
he may lose, and how the game turns about 

p 4 



about 5 
„ ? 



„ 52 



216 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



sometimes by a man being run out. A perfect 
cricketer, like a perfect whist-player, must qualify 
his scientific rules, and make the best of a bad 
partner — but, how few are perfect, especially in 
this point ! Talk not alone of good batsmen, I 
have often said. — Choose me some thorough-bred 
public-school cricketers ; for, " the only men,'" says 
Clarke, u I ever see judges of a run, are those 
who have played cricket as boys with sixpenny 
bats, used to distances first shorter, then longer as 
they grew stronger, and learnt, not from being 
bowled to by the hour, but by years of practice 
in real ^ames. You blame me because the All 
England Eleven don't learn not to run out, though 
always practising together. Why, a run is a 
thing not learnt in a day. There's that gentle- 
man yonder — with all his fine hitting he is no 
cricketer ; he can't run ; he learnt at a catapult, 
and how can a catapult teach a man the game ?" 

Great men have the same ideas, or Clarke 
would seem to have borrowed from Horace 

" Qui studet optatain cursu contingere metam 
Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit." 

A good innings disdains a sleeping partner. Be 
alive and moving ; and — instead of saying, " Well 
played ! " " Famous hit !" &c. ; or, as we some- 
times hear in the way of encouragement, " How 
near !" " What a close shave !" " Pray, take care, 



SAYING THE BOWLER. 



217 



Smith!" — think of the runs, and say "run" or 
" stop " as the case may be. Thus, you may avoid 
the ludicrous scene of two big men rushing from 
their wickets, pausing, turning back, starting again, 
and having a small talk together at the eleventh 
yard, and finding, one or the other, a prostrate 
wicket, while apologies and recrimination are the 
only solace. 

Old players need keep up a habit of throwing 
and of active movements. For, the redundant spirit 
and buoyancy of youthful activity soon evaporates. 
Many a zealous cricketer loses his once-famed 
quickness from mere disuse — Sic omnia fatis, in 
pejus mere. Instead of always batting, and prac- 
tising poor Hillyer and Wisden till their dodges 
are dodges no more, and it is little credit to score 
from them, go to your neighbour's wicket and 
practise fielding for an hour, or else, next match, 
you may find your throwing at fault. 

Fielding, I fear, is retrograding : a good general 
player, famed for that quick return which runs the 
adversary out, one who is, at the same time, a 
useful change in bowling, a safe judge of a run, 
and respectable at every point of the game — this 
is becoming a scarce character, and Batting is a 
word supposed co-extensive with Cricket, — a sad 
mistake. 

Spake the bowler. — One reason for return- 
ing the ball not to bowler, but to wicket- keeper, 



218 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



who should advance quietly, like Box, and return a 
catch. A swift throw, or any exertion in the field 
which hurts the bowler's hand, or sets it shaking, 
may lose a game. If a bowler has half-volleys 
returned to him, by stretching and stooping after 
them, he gets out of his swing. Now, this same 
swing is a great point with a bowler. Watch him 
after he has got his footsteps firm for his feet, and 
when in his regular stride, and see the increased 
precision of his performance. Then comes the 
time when your great gun tumbles down his men : 
and that is the time that some sure, judicious 
batsman, whose eminence is little seen amidst the 
loose hitting of a scratch match, comes calmly and 
composedly to the wicket and makes a stanc^; 
and, as he disposes of maiden Overs, and steals ones 
and twos, he breaks the spell that bound his men, 
and makes the dead-straight bowling good for Cuts 
and leg-hits. In no game or sport do I ever 
witness half the satisfaction of the bowler who 
can thus bowl maiden Overs and defy a score ; or 
of the batsman who takes the edge off the same, 
runs up the telegraph to even betting, and gives 
easier work and greater confidence to those who 
follow. A wicket-keeper, too, may dart off and 
save a bowler from fielding a three or four ; and, 
whenever he leaves his wicket, slip must take 
wicket-keeper's place. " How stale," " true ; but, 
— - instantly 's the word,"— from neglect of which. 



HINTS ON FIELDING. 219 



we have seen dreadful mistakes made even in good 
matches. 

Ay, and what beautiful things are done by 
quick return and a low shy ; no time wasted in 
parabolic curves : ball just skimming the ground 
when it comes in a long hop, but quickest of all 
returns is a throw to the top of the bails into 
wicket-keeper's hands. 

Point. — Your great strength lies in anticipa- 
tion : witness "Aval; avSpcov. To that gentleman 
every ball seems hit, because he always gets 
thereabouts ; yet is he near-sighted withal ! 'lis 
the mind that sees, eyes are its glasses, and he 
is too good a workman to want excuse for his 
tools. With slow bowling and a bad batsman, 
Point can anticipate easily enough. Still, with 
all bowling, fast and slow, the common fault of 
Point is, that he stands, if near, too near ; and if 
far off, yet not far off enough. Stand where you 
yourself can catch and stop. If slow in hand and 
eye stand off for longer catches, eke, by standing 
where a quick man would catch sharp catches, 
you miss everything. With fast bowling, few balls 
which could be caught at seven yards ground 
short of twelve. Though, if the ground is very 
rough, or the bowling slow, the ball may be 
popped up near the bat, even by good players. 
Whenever a ball is hit Off, Point must cross 



220 THE CRICKET FIELD. 

instanter, or he'll be too late to back up, especially j 
the bowler's wicket. 

Point is sometimes Point proper, like a Wicket- I 
keeper or Shortslip, to cramp the batsman, and 
take advantage of his mistakes; but with fast 
bowling and good batsmen, Point may advan- 
tageously stand off like any other fieldsman. For 
then, he will save many more runs, and may make 
quite as many catches. If Mr. King stood as 
Point, and Chatterton as Cover in the same line, 
with Pilch batting and Wisden bowling, they 
would not (as I presume they are well aware) 
work to the best advantage. When Clarke is 
bowling he generally wants a veritable Point for 
the catch. But, to stand near, as a Scientific Point, 
with wild bowling is absurd. 

Short-leg is often a very hardly used per- 
sonage, expected to save runs that seem easy, but 
are actual impossibilities. A good ball, perhaps, is 
pushed forward to middle wicket On, Short-leg 
being square, and the bowler looks black at him. 
Then a Draw is made, when Short-leg is standing 
rather forward, and no man is ubiquitous. If 
the batsman often does not know where the 
rise or bias may reflect the ball, how should the 
fieldsman know ? 

Cover-point and Long-slip are both difficult 
places ; the ball comes so fast and curling, that it 
puzzles even the best man. No place in the field 



HINTS ON FIELDING. 



221 



but long-stop has the work of long-slip. This used 
to be Pilch's place. 

The chief point in these places is to stand either 
to save one or to save two. This depends on the 
quickness of the fieldsman and the judgment of 
the runners. With such judges of a run as Hon. 
F. Ponsonby, Parr, Wisden, and J. Lillywhite, 
you must stand rather near to save one ; but quick 
return is every thing. Here Caldecourt was, years 
since, first-rate. I have seen him, at Cover, when 
past his best, judge well, start quick, run low, 
up and in like a shot to wicket-keeper's hands; 
and what more would you have in fielding ? When 
E. H. Budd played and won a second match for 100/. 
with Mr. Brand — two fieldsmen given, — so much 
was thought of Mr. Brand's having engaged Calde- 
court, that it was agreed he should field on both 
sides. He did so, and shied Mr. Budd out at a 
single stump. To save two, a good man may 
stand a very long way off on hard ground, and 
reduce the hardest cuts to singles. But a com- 
mon fault is, " standing nowhere," neither to save 
one nor to save two. Remember not to stand as 
sharp when fast bowling is replaced by slow. 
Cover is the place for brilliant fielding. Watch 
well the batsman, and start in time. Half a 
spring in anticipation puts you already under 
weigh, and makes yards in the ground you can 
cover. The following is curious : — 



222 



THE CKICKET FIELD. 



" You would think," said Caldecourt, " that a 
ball to the right hand may be returned more 
quickly than a ball to the left." But ask him, 
and he will show you how ? if at a long reach, he 
always found it otherwise. The right shoulder 
may be even in the better position to return (in 
spite of change of hands), when the left picks up 
the ball than when the right picks it. 

Some good Covers have been quicker with a 
hard jerk than a throw, for the attitude of fielding 
is less altered. Still a jerk is less easy to the 
wicket-keeper. A long-slip with good head and 
heels may assist long-stop ; his triumph is to run 
a man out by anticipating the balls that bump off 
long-stop's wrists and shins. 

A third man up, or a middle-slip, is at times 
very killing : this allows long-slip to stand back for 
hard hits, and no catch escapes. A forward Point, 
or middle wicket close in, often snaps up a catch 
or two, particularly when the ground is dangerous 
for forward play, or the batsman plays hesita- 
tingly. 

Thick-soled shoes save colds in soppy weather, 
and do not jar when the ground is hard ; for the 
Cantabs say that 

Thin soles + hard ground = tender feet, 

is an undeniable equation. Bowlers should wear 
worsted socks to save blisters, and mind the 



HINTS ON FIELDING. 223 

thread is not fastened off in a knot, just under the 
most sensitive part of the heel. 

Much inconvenience arises in a match (for the 
best player may be out) by spectators standing in 
the eye of the ball ; so, stretch strips of white 
canvass on poles five feet high ; for this, while it 
keeps the stupid away, provides a white back- 
ground for each wicket. 

This is good also in a park, where the deep 
shade of trees increases the confessed uncertainty 
of the game. Some such plan is much wanted 
on all public grounds where the sixpenny free- 
holders stand and hug their portly corporations, 
and, by standing in the line of the wicket, give 
the ball all the shades of green coat, light waist- 
coat, and drab smalls. Still, batsmen must try to 
rise superior to such annoyances ; for, if the bowler 
changes his side of the wicket, the umpire will 
often be in the light of the ball. 

Oh! that ring at Lord's; for, as in olden 
time, — 

" si quid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emptor ;" 

that is, if the s wilier s of half-and-half and 
smokers of pigtail, — a preponderating influence 
and large majority of voices, — applaud a hit, it does 
not follow that it is a good one : nor, if they cry 
" Butterfingers ! " need the miss be a bad one. 
No credit for good intentions ! — no allowance for 



224 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



a twisting catch and the sun enough to singe your 
eyelids! — the hit that wins the "half-and-half 55 
is the finest hit for that select assemblage, whose 
"sweet voices" quite drown the nicer judgment 
of the pavilion, even as vote by ballot would 
swamp the House of Lords. 

Long-stop. — If you would estimate the value 
of a practised long-stop, only try to play a match 
with a bad one. Still, patient merit is rarely ap- 
preciated ; for, what is done very well looks so easy. 
Long-stopping requires the cleanest handling and 
quickest return. The best in form I ever saw was 
an Oxonian about 1838, — a Mr. Napier. One 
of the worst in form, however, was the best of his 
day in effect, — Good ; for he took the ball side- 
ways. A left-handed man, as Good was, has a 
great advantage in stopping slips under-leg. 
Among the ancients, Old Beagley was the man. 
But there is many a man whose praise is yet un- 
sung ; for when Mr. E. H. Budd saw Mr. B. Stot- 
hert at Lansdown, Bath, stop right and left to Mr. 
Kirwan's bow r ling, he alluded to Beagley 's doings, 
and said Beagley never came up to K. Stothert. 
Mr. Marshall (jun.) in the same Club stopped for 
Mr. Marcon without one bye through a long in- 
nings. The gentleman who opposed the firmest 
front, however, for years, to Messrs. Kirwan and 
Fellowes, — bowlers, who have broken studs into 
the breast-bone of a long-stop, and then, to make 



HINTS FOR LONG-STOP. 



225 



amends, taken fourpenny-bits of skin off his shins, 
is Mr, Hartopp, pronounced, by Mr. Charles Burt, 
- — himself undeniable at that point, — to be the best 
for a continuance he has ever seen. Vigeat vireat- 
que ! His form is good ; and he works with great 
ease and cool attention. Among the most cele- 
brated at present are Mr. C. Ridding, W. Pilch, 
Guy, and Dean. 

On Long-stopping, Mr. Hartopp kindly writes: — 
" No place requires so much patient perseverance : 
the work is so mechanical. I have seen many a 
brilliant fieldsman there for a short innings, while 
the bowling is straight and rarely passes ; but, let 
him have to humdrum through 150 or 200 runs, 
and he will get bored, tired, and careless ; then, 
runs come apace. . Patience is much wanted, if a 
sharp runner is in ; for he will often try a long-stop's 
temper by stealing runs ; in such a case, I have 
found it the best plan to prepare the wicket- 
keeper for a hard throw to his, the nearer, wicket ; 
for, if this does not run the man out, it frightens 
him down to steadier running. Throwing over 
may sometimes answer; but a cunning runner 
will get in your way, or beat a ball thrown over 
his head. Long-stop's distance must often be as 
much as four or five yards less for a good runner 
than for a bad. Short distance does not make 
stopping more difficult ; because, it gives fewer 
hops and twists to the ball; but a longer distance 

Q 



226 



THE CEICKET FIELD. 



enables you to cover more tips and draws, and 
saves leg-byes. Good runners ought to cross if 
the ball is in the least fumbled ; but clean fielding, 
with quick under-hand return, would beat the 
Kegent Street Pet himself, did he attempt a run. 
Long-stop is wholly at fault if he requires the 
wicket-keeper to stand aside : this would spoil 
the stumping. As to gloves and pads, let every 
one please himself; we must choose between 
gloves and sore hands : but wrist gauntlets are of 
great use, and no hindrance to catches, which often 
come spinning to the long-stop, and otherwise 
difficult. 

" As to form, dropping on one knee is a bad 
position for any fielding : you are fixed and left 
behind by any sudden turn of the ball. The best 
rule is to watch the ball from the bowler's hand 
and move accordingly, and you will soon find for 
how much bias to allow ; and beware of a slope 
like Lord's : it causes a greater deviation than you 
would imagine in thirty yards. Just as the ball 
comes, draw yourself up heels together (thus many 
a shooter have I stopped), and, picking as neatly 
as you can, pitch it back to wicket-keeper as if it 
were red hot. Quick return saves many byes, 
and keeps up an appearance which prevents the 
attempt. The same discrimination of lengths is 
required with hands as with bat. Long hops aro 
easy : a tice is as hard almost as a shooter; hall- 



WICKET-KEEPING. 



227 



volley is a teaser. Such balls as pitch up to you 
should be e played forward ' by pushing or sweep- 
ing your hands out to meet them ; even if you do 
not field them clean, still you will often save a 
run by forcing the ball up towards the wicket- 
keeper, and having it before you. 

" A Long-stop wants much command of atten- 
tion, — eye never off the ball; and this, so little 
thought of, is the one great secret of all fielding : 
you must also play your hardest and your very 
best ; a habit which few have energy to sustain. 
If you miss a ball, rattle away after it ; do not 
stand, as many do, to apologise by dumb show. 
If the ball bumps up at the moment of handling, 
throw your chin up and let it hit your chest as 
full as it may : this is Horace's advice; — 

' Fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus. 1 

" Long-stop should assist the backing up on the 
On side, and must start at once to be in time. 
The attention he has to sustain is very trying to 
the eyes, especially in windy weather." 

Wicket-keeping. — If not born with better 
ocular nerves than the average, I doubt whether 
any degree of practice would make a first-rate 
wicket-keeper. Still, since Lillywhite succeeded 
in training one of the Winchester eleven in Wicket- 
keeping, by bowling accordingly, wicket-keeping 
seems an art to be acquired. To place the hands 



228 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



accurately, right or left, according to the pitch of 
the ball, and to take that ball, however fast, un- 
baulked by the bat or body of the player, is really 
very difficult. But what if we add — and how few, 
very few, can accomplish it ! — taking the ball in 
spite of an unexpected bias or turn from the bat. 
Still, practice will do much where nature has 
done a little ; but with modern bowling you want 
a man both u rough and ready." Mr. Herbert 
Jenner was M the ready man ;" so also are Messrs. 
Anson, Nicholson, and W. Eidding, and Box ; but 
Wenman was ready and rough too. He had fine 
working qualities, and could stand a deal of 
pounding, day after day : others have had a short 
life and a merry one, and mere transient popu- 
larity ; but, for wicket-keeping under difficulties, 
give me Wenman. At wicket-keeping, the men 
of labour ought to beat the men of leisure. Hard 
hands are essential : and, hard hands can only come 
from hard work. Wenman's calling, that of a 
wheelwright and carpenter, is in his favour. " I 
found my hands quite seasoned," writes an ama- 
teur, " after a two-month's work at the oar." Chat- 
terton fears no pace in bowling. But Lockyer's 
name now stands highest of all: the certainty 
and facility with which he takes Wisden's bowling, 
both with right and left, can hardly be surpassed. 
We leave wicket-keepers to emulate Lockyer, 
especially in his every-day lasting and working 



WICKET-KEEPERS. 



229 



qualities against fast bowling, for that is the diffi- 
culty, Like Wenman, he does not stand too near, 
so he is well placed for catches. Moreover, 
they both have weight and power — a decided ad- 
vantage : a feather weight may be shaken. Win- 
terton, of Cambridge, carries great weight with 
him at the wicket. This gives a decided advantage 
over a player of the weight of Mr. Ridding : albeit, 
in the Players' Match in 1849, Mr. Ridding 
stumped Hillyer off Mr. Fellowes's bowling, and 
that with an Off-ball nearly wide! Hammond 
was the great wicket-keeper of former days : but 
then, the bowling was often about Clarke's pace. 
Browne, of Brighton, and Osbaldeston put 
wicket-keepers to flight; but the race re-ap- 
peared in — the finest ever seen for moderate pace 
— Mr. Jenner, famed not only for the neatest 
stumping, but for the marvellous quantity of 
ground he could cover, serving, as a near Point, 
Leg, and Slip, as well as Wicket-keeper. Box's 
powers, though he has always been a first-rate 
man, are rather limited to pace. — " Have me to 
bowl," Lillywhite used to say, " Box to keep 
wicket, and Pilch to hit, and then you'll see 
Cricket ; " for Box is best with Lillywhite. — ■ As 
to making mistakes as wicket-keeper, w T hat mortal 
combination of flesh and blood can help it. One 
of the most experienced Long-stops, after many 
years at Lord's and in the country, says, to take 

Q 3 



230 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



even one out of three of possible chances, has 
proved, in his experience, good average wicket- 
keeping ; for, think of leg shooters ! though Mr. 
Kidding could take even them wonderfully well. 

" I have seen," writes Mr. E. S. E. EL, "Mr. C. 
Taylor — who was capital at running in, and rarely 
stumped out, having an excellent eye, and if the 
twist of the ball beat him it was enough to beat the 
wicket-keeper also — I have seen him, after miss- 
ing a ball, walk quietly back to his ground, poor 
wicket-keeper looking foolish and vexed at not 
stumping him, and the ring, of course, calling 
him a muff." Really, wicket-keepers are hardly 
used ; the spectators little know that a twist which 
misses the bat, may as easily escape the hand. 

Again, " the best piece of stumping I ever saw 
was done by Mr. Anson, in the Players' Match, 
in 1843. Butler, one of the finest of the Not- 
tingham batsmen, in trying to draw one of Mr„ 
Mynn's leg shooters, just lifted, for an instant, his 
right foot ; b Mr. Anson timed the feat beautifully, 
and swept the ball with his left hand into the 
wicket. I fancy a feat so difficult was never done 
so easily." — H I also saw Mr. Anson, in a match 
against the Etonians, stump a man with his right, 
catch the flying bail with his left, and replace it 
so quickly that the man's surprise and puzzle 
made all the fun: stumped out, though wicket 
seemingly never down!" Mr. Jenner was very 



WICKET-KEEPERS. 



231 



clever in these things, skimming off one bail with 
his little finger, ball in hand, and not troubling 
the umpire. Once his friend, Mr. R. K., had 
an awkward trick of pulling up his trousers, which 
lifted his leg every time he had missed a ball : 
Mr. Jenner waited for his accustomed habit, 
caught him in the act, and stumped him. " A 
similar piece of fun happened in Gentlemen of 
England v. Gentlemen of Kent in 1845. A 
Kent player sat down to get wind, after a run, 
his bat in his ground but with seat of honour out, 
and for a moment let go the handle, and the wicket- 
keeper stumped him out. He was very angry, 
and said he never would play again : however, he 
did play the return match at Canterbury, where 
he was put out in precisely the same manner. 
Since which, like Monsieur Tonson, he has never 
been heard of more." 

That a fieldsman w T ants wits to his fingers' ends, 
was shown by Martingell one day : being just too 
far to command a ball he gave it a touch to keep it 
up, and cried, " Catch it, Slip." Slip, so assisted, 
reached the ball. 

The great thing in Wicket-keeping is, for hand 
and eye to go together, just as with batting, and 
what is exercise for the former, assists the latter. 
Any exercise in which the hand habitually tries 
to obey the eye, is useful for cricket; fielding 
mproves batting, and batting improves fielding. 

q 4 



232 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



Twelve of the principal wicket-keepers of the 
]ast fifty years w r ere all efficient Batsmen; namely, 
Hammond, Searle, Box, Wenman, Dorrington, 
C. Brown, Chatterton, Lockyer, with Messrs. 
Jenner, Anson, Nicholson, and Ridding, 

" How would you explain, sir," said Cobbett, 
" that the player's batting keeps pace with the 
gentleman's, when we never take a bat except in a 
game ? " — " Because you are constantly following 
the ball with hand and eye together, which forms 
a valuable practice for judging pace, and time, 
and distance : not enough certainly to teach bat- 
ting, but enough to keep it up. Besides, if you 
practise too little, most gentlemen practise too 
much, ending in a kind of experimental and specu- 
lative play, which proves — like gentleman's farm- 
ing — more scientific than profitable. Amateurs 
often try at too much, mix different styles, and, 
worse than all, form conflicting habits. The game, 
for an average, is the player's game ; because, less 
ambitious, with less excitement about favourite 
hits, of a simple style, with fewer things to think 
of, and a game in which, though limited, they 
are better grounded. 

Amateurs are apt to try a bigger game than 
they could safely play w T ith twice their practice. 
Many a man, for instance, whose talent lies in 
defence, tries free hitting, and, between the two, 
proves good for nothing. Others, perhaps, can 



GENERAL ADVICE. 



233 



play straight and fairly Off ; — and, should not they 
learn to hit On also ? Certainly : but while in a 
transition state, they are not fit for a county 
match : and some men are always in this transition 
state. Horace had good cricket ideas, for, said he, 

" Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finger 

Either play for show off, and " that's villanous," 
says Hamlet, " and shows a most pitiful ambition 
in the fool that uses it ;" or, adopt a style you can 
put well together — and sumite materiam — cequam 
viribuS) adopt a style that suits your capabilities ; 
cui lecta patenter erit res; try at no more than 
you can do — nee deseret hunc, — and that's the 
game to carry you through. 

" A mistake," said an experienced bowler, " in 
giving a leg ball or two, is not all clear loss ; for, 
a swing round to the leg often takes a man off his 
straight play. To ring the changes on Cutting 
with horizontal bat, and forward play with a 
straight bat, and leg-hitting, which takes a dif- 
ferent bat again, this requires more steady practice 
than most amateurs have either time or perse- 
verance to learn thoroughly. So, one movement 
is continually interfering with the other." 



234 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



CHAP. XL 

CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. — MISCELLANEOUS. 

William Beldham saw as much of cricket as 
any other man in England, from the year 1780 to 
about 1820. Mr. E. H. Budd and Caldecourt are 
the best of chroniclers from the days of Beldham 
down to George Parr. Yet neither of these 
worthies could remember any injury at cricket, 
which would at all compare with those " moving 
accidents of flood and field " which have thinned 
the ranks of Nirnrod, Hawker, or Isaac Walton. 
A fatal accident in any legitimate game of cricket 
is almost unknown. Mr. A. Haygarth, however, 
kindly informed me that the father of George III. 
died from the effects of a blow from a cricket 
ball. His authority is Wraxall's Memoirs : — 

" Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II., 
expired suddenly in 1751, at Leicester House, in 
the arms of Desnoyers, the celebrated dancing 
master. His end was caused by an internal 
abscess that had long been forming in consequence 
of a blow which he received in the side from a 
cricket ball while he was engaged in playing at 



CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. 



235 



that game on the lawn at Cliefden House in 
Buckinghamshire, where he then principally re- 
sided. It did not take place, however, till several 
months after the accident, when a collection of 
matter burst and instantly suffocated him. 5 ' 

A solicitor at Romsey, about 1825, was, says an 
eye-witness, struck so hard in the abdomen that 
he died in a week of mortification. There is 
a rumour of a boy at school, about eighteen 
years since, and another boy about twenty-eight 
years ago, being severally killed by a blow on 
the head with a cricket ball. A dirty boy also, of 
Salisbury town, in 1826, having contracted a bad 
habit of pocketing the balls of the pupils of Dr. 
Ratcliffe, was hit rather hard on the head with a 
brass-tipped stump, and, by a strange coincidence, 
died, as the jury found, of " excess of passion," a 
few hours after. 

The most likely source of serious injury, is 
when a hitter returns the ball with all his force, 
straight back to the bowler. Caldecourt and the 
Rev. C. Wordsworth, severally and separately, re- 
j! marked in my hearing that they had shuddered at 
cricket once, each in the same position, and each 
from the same hitter ! Each had a ball hit back 
to him by that powerful hitter Mr. H. Kingscote, 
which whizzed, in defiance of hand or eye, most 
dangerously by. A similar hit, already described, 
by Hammond who took a ball at the pitch, just 



236 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



missed Lord F. Beauclerk's head, and spoiled his 
nerve for bowling ever after. But, what if these 
several balls had really hit ? who knows whether 
the respective skulls might not have stood the 
shock, as in a case which I witnessed in Oxford, 
in 1835 ; when one Richard Blucher, a Cowley 
bowler, was hit on the head by a clean half-volley, 
from the bat of Henry Daubeny — than whom 
few Wykehamists used (fuit /) to hit with better 
eye or stronger arm. Still " Richard was him- 
self again " the very next day ; for, we saw him 
with his head tied up, bowling at shillings as in- 
dustriously as ever. Some skulls stand a great 
deal. Witness the sprigs of Shillelah at Donni- 
brook fair ; still most indubitably tender is the 
face ; as also — which horresco ref evens ; and here 
let me tell wicket-keepers and long-stops especially, 
that a cricket jacket made long and full, with 
pockets to hold a handkerchief sufficiently in front, 
is a precaution not to be despised ; though " the 
race of inventive men " have also devised a cross- 
bar india-rubber guard, aptly described in Achilles' 
threat to Thersites, in the Iliad. # 

The most alarming accident I ever saw occurred 
in one of the many matches played by the Lans- 
down Club against Mr. E. H. Budd's Eleven, at 
Purton, in 1835. Two of the Lansdown players 



* Horn. II. ii. 262. 



A WYKEHAMIST PwECOLLECTION. 237 



were running between wickets ; and good Mr. 
Pratt — immani cor pore — was standing mid way, 
and hiding each from the other. Both were rush- 
ing the same side of him, and as one held his bat 
most dangerously extended, the point of it met his 
partner under the chin, forced back his head as if 
his neck were broken, and dashed him senseless to 
the ground. Never shall I forget the shudder ( 
and the chill of every heart, till poor Price — for 
he it was — being lifted up, gradually evinced re- 
turning consciousness; and 5 at length, when all 
was explained, he smiled, amidst his bewilder- 
ment, with his usual good-nature, on his unlucky 
friend. A surgeon, who witnessed the collision, 
feared he was dead, and said, afterwards, that 
with less powerful muscles (for he had a neck like 
a bull-dog) he never could have stood the shock. 
Price told me next day that he felt as if a little 
more and he never should have raised his head 
again. 

And what Wykehamist of 1820-30 does not 

I remember R Price ? or what Fellow of New 
College down to 1847, when 

" Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit" 

| has not enjoyed his merriment in the Common 
Room or his play on Bullingdon and Cowley 
Marsh? His were the safest hands and most 
effective fielding ever seen. To attempt the one 



238 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



run from a cover hit when Price was there, or 
to give the sight of one stump to shy at, was a 
wicket lost. When his friend, F. B. Wright, or 
any one he could trust, was at the wicket, well 
backed up, the ball, by the fine old Wykehamist 
action, was up and in with such speed and preci- 
sion as I have hardly seen equalled and never ex- 
, ceeded. When he came to Lord's, in 1825, with 
that Wykehamist Eleven which Mr. Ward so long 
remembered with delight, their play was unknown 
and the bets on their opponents ; but when once 
Price was seen practising at a single stump, his 
Eleven became the favourites immediately ; for he 
was one of the straightest of all fast bowlers ; and 
I have heard experienced batsmen say, " We don't 
care for his under-hand bowling, only it is so 
straight we could take no liberties, and the first 
we missed was Out." I never envied any man his 
sight and nerve like Price — the coolest prac- 
titioner you ever saw : he always looked bright, 
though others blue ; and you had only to glance 
at his sharp grey eyes, and you could at once ac- 
count for the fact that one stump to shy at, a rook 
for a single bullet, or the ripple of a trout in a 
bushy stream, was so much fun for R. Price. 

Some of the most painful accidents have been 
of the same kind — from collision ; therefore I 
never blame a man who, as the ball soars high in 
air, and the captain of his side does not (as he 



CHANCES OF WAE. 



239 



ought if he can) call out " Johnson has it ! " stops 
short, for fear of three spikes in 'his instep, or the 
buttons of his neighbour's jacket forcibly coin- 
ciding with his own. Still, these are not distinc- 
tively the dangers of cricket : men may run their 
heads together in the street. 

The principal injuries sustained are in the 
fingers; though, I did once know a gentleman 
who played in spectacles, and seeing two balls in 
the air, he caught at the shadow, and nearly had 
the substance in his face. The old players, in the 
days of under-hand boAvling, played without 
gloves ; and Bennet assured me he had seen Tom 
Walker, before advancing civilisation made man 
tender, rub his bleeding fingers in the dust. The 
old players could show finger-joints of most un- 
genteel dimensions ; and no wonder, for a finger 
has been broken even through tubular india-rub- 
ber. Still, with a good pair of cricket gloves, no 
man need think much about his fingers ; albeit 
flesh will blacken, joints will grow too large for 
the accustomed ring, and finger-nails will come off. 
A spinning ball is the most mischievous; and 
when there is spin and pace too (as with a ball 
from Mr. Fellowes, which you can hear humming 
like a top) the danger is too great for mere amuse- 
ment ; for when, as in the Players' Match of 
1849, Hilly er plays a bowler a foot away from 
his stumps, and Pilch cannot face him — which is 



240 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



true when Mr. Fellowes bowls on any but the 
smoothest ground — why then, we will not say 
that any thing which that hardest of hitters and 
thorough cricketer does, is not cricket, but cer- 
tainly it is anything but play. 

Some of the worst injuries of the hands occur 
rather in fielding than in batting. A fine player 
of the Kent Eleven, about three years ago, so far 
injured his thumb that one of the joints was re- 
moved , and he has rarely played since. Another 
of the best gentleman players broke one of the 
bones of his hand in putting down a wicket : but, 
strangest of all, I saw one of the Christchurch 
eleven at Oxford, in 1835, in fielding at Cover, 
split up his hand an inch in length between his 
second and third fingers : still, all was well in 
a few weeks. 

Add to all these chances of war, the many balls 
which are flying at the same time at Lord's and 
at the Universities, and other much frequented 
grounds, on a practising day. At Oxford you may 
see, any day in the summer, on Cowley Marsh, 
two rows of six wickets each facing each other, 
with a space of about sixty yards between each 
row, and ten yards between each wicket. Then, 
you have twelve bowlers, dos a dos, and as many 
hitters — making twelve balls and twenty -four 
men, all in danger's way at once, besides by- 
standers. The most any one of these bowlers can 



CHANCES OP WAK. 



241 



do is to look out for the balls of his own set; 
whether hit or not by a ball from behind, is very 
much a matter of chance. A ball from the 
opposite row once touched my hair. The won- 
der is, that twelve balls should be flying in a 
small space nearly every day, yet I never heard 
of any man being hit in the face — a fact the 
more remarkable because there was usually free 
hitting with loose bowling. Pierce Egan re- 
cords that, in 1830, in the Hyde Park Ground, 
Sheffield, nine double-wicket games were playing 
at once — two hundred players within six 
acres of grass ! One day, at Lord's, just before 
the match bell rung after dinner, I saw one of the 
hardest hitters in the M. C. C. actually trying 
how hard he could drive among the various clus- 
ters of sixpenny amateurs, every man thinking it 
fun, and no one dangerous. An elderly gentle- 
man cannot stand a bruise so well — matter forms or 
bone exfoliates. But then, an elderly gentleman, 
— bearing an inverse ratio in all things to him 
who calls him "governor," — is the most careful 
thing in nature ; and as to young blood, it cir- 
culates too fast to be overtaken by half the ills 
that flesh is heir to. 

A well known Wykehamist player of E. Price's 
standing, was lately playing as wicket-keeper, and 
seeing the batsman going to hit Off, ran almost to 
the place of a near Point ; the hit, a tremendously 

R 



242 



THE CRICKET FIELl). 



hard one, glanced off from his forehead — he called 
out " Catch it/' and it was caught by bowler ! 
He was not hurt — not even marked by the ball. 

Four was scored at Beckenham, 1850, by a hit 
that glanced off Point's head; but the player 
suffered much in this instance. 

A spot under the window of the tavern at 
Lord's was marked as the evidence of a famous 
hit by Mr. Budd, and when I played, Oxford v* 
Cambridge, in 1836, Charles, son of Lord F. 
Beauclerk, hitting above that spot elicited the ob- 
servation from the old players. Beagley hit a ball 
from his Lordship over a bank 120 yards. Free- 
mantle's famous hit was 130 yards in the air. 
Freemantle's bail was once hit up and fell back 
on the stump : Not out. A similar thing was 
witnessed by a friend on the Westminster Ground. 
" One hot day," said Bay ley, u I saw a new stump 
bowled out of the perpendicular, but the bail 
stuck in the groove from the melting of the var- 
nish in the sun, and the batsman continued his 
innings." I have seen Mr. Kir wan hit a bail 
thirty yards. A bail has flown forty yards. 

I once chopped hard down upon a shooter, and 
the ball went a foot away from my bat straight 
forward towards the bowler, and then, by its ro- 
tary motion, returned in the same straight line 
exactly, like the " draw-back stroke " at billiards, 
and shook the bail off. 



FEMALE CKICKETERS. 



243 



At a match played at Cambridge, a lost ball 
was found so firmly fixed on the point of a broken 
glass bottle in an ivied wall, that a new ball was 
necessary to continue the game. 

Among remarkable games of cricket, are games 
on the ice — as on Christchurch meadow, Oxford, 
in 1849, and other places. The one-armed and 
one-legged pensioners of Greenwich and Chelsea 
is an oft-repeated match, 

Mr. Trumper and his dog challenged and beat 
two players at single wicket in 1825, on Hare*- 
field common, near Rickmans worth. 

Female cricketers Southey deemed worthy of 
notice in his Common-place Book. A match, he 
says, was played at Bury between the Matrons 
and the Maids of the parish. The Matrons vin- 
dicated their superiority and challenged any eleven 
petticoats in the county of Suffolk. A similar 
match, it is noted, was played at West Tarring in 
1850. Southey also was amused at five legs 
being broken in one match — but only wooden 
legs — of Greenwich pensioners. 

Eleven females of Surrey were backed against 
Eleven of Hampshire, says Pierce Egan, at New- 
ington, Oct. 2. 1811, by two noblemen for 500 
guineas a side. Hants won. And a similar 
match was played in strict order and decorum on 
Lavant Level, Sussex, before 3000 spectators. 

Matches of much interest have been played 

B 2 



244 



THE CRICKET EIELD. 



between members of the same family and some 
other club. Besides "the Twelve Csesars," the 
four Messrs. Walker and the Messrs. Ridding 
have proved how cricket may run in a family, not 
to forget four of the House of Verulam. 

Pugilists have rarely been cricket players. 
" We used to see the fighting men/' said Beld- 
ham, "playing skittles about the ground, but 
there were no players among them." Ned O'Neal 
was a pretty good player; and Bendigo had 
friends confident enough to make a p. p. match be- 
tween him and George Parr for 50Z. When the 
day came, Bendigo appeared with a lame leg, and 
Parr's friends set an example worthy of true 
cricketers; they scorned to play a lame man, or to 
profit by their neighbour's misfortunes. 

In the famous Nottingham match, 1817, Bent- 
ley, on the All England side, was playing well, 
when he was given " run out," having run round 
his ground. " Why," said Beldham, u he had 
been home long enough to take a pinch of snuff." 
They changed the umpire ; but the blunder lost 
the match. 

" Spiked shoes," said Beldham, " were not in 
use in my country. Never saw them till I went 
to Hambledon." "Robinson," said old Mr. Mor- 
ton, the dramatist, " began with spikes of a mon- 
strous length, on one foot." " The first notion of 
a leg guard I ever saw," said an old player, " was 



SAWDUST. 



245 



Robinson's: he put together two thin boards, 
angle-wise, on his right shin : the ball would go off 
it as clean as off the bat, and made a precious deal 
more noise : but it was laughed at — did not last 
long. Robinson burnt some of his fingers off when 
a child, and had the handle of his bat groved, to 
fit the stunted joints. Still, he was a fine hitter. 

A one-armed man, who used a short bat in his 
right hand, has been known to make a fair average 
score. 

Sawdust. — Beldham, Robinson, and Lambert, 
played Bennett, Fennex, and Lord F. Reauclerk, 
a notable single wicket match at Lord's, 27th 
June, 1806. Lord Frederick's last innings was 
winning the game, and no chance of getting him 
out. His Lordship had then lately introduced 
sawdust when the ground was w r et. Beldham, 
unseen, took up a lump of wet dirt and sawdust, 
and stuck it on the ball, w T hich, pitching favour- 
ably, made an extraordinary twist, and took the 
wicket. This I heard separately from Beldham, 
Bennett, and also Fennex, who used to mention 
it as among the wonders of his long life. 

As to long scores, above one hundred in an 
innings rather lessens than adds to the interest of 
a game. 

The greatest number recorded, with overhand 
bowling, w T as in M. C. C. v. Sussex, at Brighton, 
about 1844; the four innings averaged 207 each. 

K 3 



246 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



In 1815, Epsom v. Middlesex, at Lord's, scored 
first innings, 476. Sussex v. Epsom, in 1817, 
scored 445 in one innings. Mr. Ward's great 
innings was 278, in M. C. C. v. Norfolk, 24th 
July, 1820, but with underhand bowling. Mr. 
Mynn's great innings at Leicester was in North 
v. South, in 1836. South winning by 218 runs. 
Mr. Mynn 21 (not out) and 125 (not out) against 
Redgate's bowling. Wisden, Parr, and Pilch, 
Felix, and Julius Caesar, and John Lillywhite, 
have scored above 100 runs in one innings 
against good bowling. Wisden once bowled ten 
wickets in one innings : Mr. Kirwan has done the 
same thing. 

In Bowling. — The greatest feat ever recorded 
is this: — that Lillywhite bowled Pilch 61 balls 
without a run, and the last took his wicket. True, 
Clarke bowled Daniel Day, at Weymouth, 60 balls 
without a run, but then Daniel would hit at no- 
thing. Clarke also bowled 64 balls without a run 
to Caffyn and Box, in Notts v. England in 1853, 
no doubt a great achievement; still, at slow 
bowling, these players have not their usual con- 
fidence : they had over pitched balls which they 
did not hit away. But Pilch was not the man 
to miss a chance, and the fact that he made no 
run from 61 balls speaks wonders as to what 
Lillywhite could do in his best day. 

Mr. Marcon, at Attlebury, 1850, bowled four 



BOWLING. 



247 



men in four successive balls. The Lansdown 
Club, in 1850, put the West Gloucestershire 
Club out for six runs, and of these only two were 
scored by hits — so ten ciphers ! Eleven men 
last year (1850) were out for a run each ; Mr. 
Felix being one. Mr. G. Yonge, playing against 
the Etonians, put a whole side out for six runs. 
A friend, playing the Shepton Mallet Club, put 
his adversaries in, second innings, for seven runs to 
tie, and got al out for five ! In a famous Wyke- 
hamist match ill depended on an outsider's making 
two runs, he made a hard hit ; when, in the 
moment of exultation, " Cut away, you young sin- 
ner," said a big fellow ; and lo ! down he laid his 
bat, and did inceed cut away, but — to the tent ! 
while the other side, amidst screams of laughter 
at the mistake, pit down the wicket and won the 
match. 

In a B. Matcl, 1810, the B.s, scored second 
innings, only 6 ; aid four of these were made at one 
hit, by J. Wells, i man given, though the first 
innings scored 13*7 

True, E. H. Bud was " absent" still the Bent- 
leys, Bennett, Beldam and Lord Frederick Beau- 
clerk were among he ten. 

On the Surrey gound, 1851, had not an easy 
catch been missed, the Eleven of All England 
would have gone ov, for a run apiece. 

The Smallest Sore on record is that of the 

B 4 



248 



THE CEICKET FIELD. 



Paltiswick Club, when playing against Bury in 
1824 : their first innings was only 4 runs ! Pilch 
bowled out eight of them. In their next innings 
they scored 46. Bury, first innings, 101. 

In a match at Oxford, in 1835, I saw the two 
last wickets, Charles Beauclerk and E. Buller, 
score 110 runs; and in an L Z. mateh at Lea- 
mington, the last wickets scored 80. 

Tie Matches. — There have been only four of 
any note : the first was played at Woolwich, in 
1818, M. C. C. v. Boyal Artillery with E. H. 
Budd, Esq.; the second, at Lord'*, in 1839, M. 
C. C. v. Oxford ; the third, at lord's, between 
Winchester and Eton; the fourtl, at the Oval, 
in 1847, Surrey v. Kent. Bit at a scratch 
match of Woking v. Shiere, in 1118, at Woking, 
there was a tie each innings and all four innings 
the same number, 71 ! 

As to hard hitting. — u Oie of the longest 
hits in air of modern days," writes a friend, 
w was made at Himley about :hree years since 
by Mr. Fellowes, confessedly )ne of the hard- 
est of all hitters. The same gntleman, in prac- 
tice on the Leicester ground, lit, clean over the 
poplars, one hundred long pace from the wicket : 
the distance from bat to pit^i of ball may be 
fairly stated as 140 yards, fhis was ten yards 
further, I think, than the hi 1 at Himley, which 
every one wondered at; thougl, the former was off 



STUPID THINGS. 



24» 



slow lobs in practice, the latter in a match. Mr. 
Fellowes once made so high a hit over the bowler's 
(Wisden's) head, that the second run was finished 
as the ball returned to earth ! He was afterwards 
caught by Arinitage, Long-field On, when half 
through the second run. I have also seen, I think, 
Mr. Gr. Barker, of Trinity, hit a nine on Parker's 
Piece. It took three average throwers to throw 
it up. Mr. Bastard, of Trinity, hit a ten on the 
same ground. Sir P. Heygate, this year, hit an 
eight at Leicester." When Mr. Budd hit a 
nine at Woolwich, strange to say, it proved a 
tie match : an eight would have lost the game. 
Practise clean hitting, correct position, and judg- 
ment of lengths with free arm, and the ball is 
sure to go far enough. The habit of hitting at a 
ball oscillating from a slanting pole will greatly 
improve any unpractised hitter. A soft ball 
will answer the purpose, pierced and threaded on 
a string. 

The most vexatious of all stupid things was 
done by James Broad bridge, in Sussex v. Eng- 
land, at Brighton, in 1827, one of the trial 
matches which excited such interest in the early 
days of overhand bowling. u We went in for 
120 to win," said our good friend, Captain 
Cheslyn. u Now," I said, * my boys, let every 
man resolve on a steady game and the match is 
ours ; when, almost at the first set off; that stupid 



250 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



fellow Jim threw his bat a couple of yards at a 
ball too wide to reach, and Mr. Ward caught 
him at Point ! The loss of this one man's innings 
was not all, for the men went in disgusted ; the 
quicksilver was up with the other side, and down 
with us, and the match was lost by twenty-four 
runs." But, though stupid in this instance, Broad- 
bridge was one of the most artful dodgers that 
ever handled a ball. And once he practised for 
some match till he appeared to all the bowlers 
about Lord's to have reduced batting to a cer- 
tainty : but when the time came, amidst the most 
sanguine expectations of his friends, he made 
no runs. 

Now for Generalship : A manager had better 
not be a bowler, least of all a slow bowler, for he 
wants some impartial observer to tell him when 
to go on and when to change, — a modest man 
will leave off too soon ; a conceited man too late. 
To say nothing of the effect of a change, so well 
known to gain, not only wickets, but catches 
(because the timing is different), it is too little 
considered that different bowlers are difficult to 
different men, — a very forward player, and one 
eager for a Cut, may respectively be non-suited, 
each by the bowling easiest to the other. A 
manager requires the greatest equanimity and 
temper, especially in managing his bowlers, on 
whom all depends. He should lead while he 



CHOOSING AN ELEVEN. 



251 



appears only to consult them, and never let them 
feel that the men are placed contrary to their 
wishes. By changing the best fieldmen into the 
busiest places, four or five good men appear like 
a good eleven. To put a man short slip who is 
slow of sight, and a man long leg who does not 
understand a long catch, may lose a match. In 
putting the batsmen in, it is a great point to 
have men in early who are likely to make a 
stand, — falling wickets are very discouraging. 
Also beware of the bad judges of a run ; and 
match your men to the bowling, I have seen a 
man score twenty against one bowler who was at 
work two against another — keep your men in 
good spirits and good humour; if the game is 
against you, save all you can, and wait one of 
those wondrous changes that a single Over some- 
times makes. Never despair till the last man's out. 
The M.C.C. in 1847 in playing Surrey followed 
their innings, being headed by 106 ; still they woa 
the match by nine runs. 

The manager should always choose his own 
Eleven; and, w r e have already hinted that fielding, 
rather than batting, is the qualification. A good 
field is sure to save runs, though the best batsman 
may not make any. When all are agreed on the 
bowlers, I would leave the bowlers to select such 
men as they can trust. Then, in their secret con- 



252 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



clave you will hear such principles of selection as 
these: — "King must be Point, Chatterton we 
cannot afford to put Cover unless you can ensure 
Wenman to keep wicket ; Dean must be longstop : 
he works so hard and saves so many draws ; and I 
have not nerve to attack the leg stump as I ought 
to with any other man. We shall have three men 
at least against us whom we cannot reckon on 
bowling out; so if for Short-slip we have a Hilly er, 
and at leg such a man as Coates of Sheffield, we 
may pick these men up pretty easily." " But as 
to Sir Wormwood Scrubbs, our secretary vows 
he shall never get any more pine apples and cham- 
pagne for our Gala days if we don't have him, 
and he is about our sixth bat." " Can't be helped, 
for, what with his cigar and his bad temper, he 
will put us all wrong ; besides, we must have J ohn 
Gingerley, whose only fault is chaffing, and these 
two men will never do together : then for Middle- 
wicket we have Young George." "Why, Ed- 
wards is quite as safe." " Yes ; but not half as 
tractable. I would never bowl without George 
if I could have him ; his eye is always on me, and 
he will shift his place for every ball in the Over, 
if I wish it. A handy man to put about in a 
moment just where you want him, is worth a great 
deal to a bowler." " Then you leave out Kings- 
mill, Barker, and Cotesworth ? Why, they can 
score better than most of the tail of the Eleven ! " 



CHOOSING AN ELEVEN. 253 



€e Yes ; on practising days, with loose play, but, 
with good men against them, what difference can 
there be between any two men, when the first 
ripping ball levels both alike ? " 

When taking the field, good humour and con- 
fidence is the thing. A general who expects 
every thing smooth, in dealing with ten fallible 
fellow-creatures, should be at once dismissed the 
service : he must always have some man he had 
rather change as Virgil says of the bees — 

Semper erunt quarum mutari corpora malis ; 

but if you can have four or five safe players, join 
your influence with theirs, and so keep up an 
appearance of working harmoniously together. 
Obviously two bowlers of different pace, like 
Clarke and Wisden, work well together, as also a 
left-handed and right-handed batsman, like Felix 
and Pilch, whom we have seen run up a hundred 
runs faster than ever before or since ; 

Nunc dextra ingeminans ictus, nunc ille sinistra. 

Never put in all your best men at first, and 
leave " a tail " to follow : many a game has been 
lost in this manner, for men lose confidence when 
all the best are out : add to this, most men play 
better for the encouragement that a good player 



254 THE CBICKET FIELD. 



often gives. And take care that you put good 
judges of a run in together. A good runner starts 
intuitively and by habit, where a bad judge, seeing 
no chance, hesitates and runs him out. If a good 
Off-hitter and a good Leg-hitter are in together, 
the same field that checks the one will give an 
opening to the other. 

Frequent change of bowlers, where two men 
are making runs, is good : but do not change good 
bowling for inferior, till it is hit ; unless, you know 
your batsman is a dangerous man, only w r aiting 
till his eyes are open. 

With a fine forward player, a near Middle- 
wicket or forward Point often snaps up a catch, 
when the Bowler varies his time; generally, a 
third Slip can hardly be spared. 

If your Wicket-keeper is not likely to stump 
any one, make a Slip of him, provided you play a 
Short-leg ; otherwise he is wanted at the wicket 
to save the single runs. 

And if Point is no good as Point for a sharp 
catch, make a field of him. A bad Point will 
make more catches, and save more runs some 
yards back. Many a time have I seen both Point 
and Wicket-keeper standing where they were of 
no use. The general must place his men not on 
any plan or theory, but Avhere each particular 
man's powers can be turned to the best account. 



COMMENTS ON LAWS. 



255 



We have already mentioned the common error of 
men standing too far to save One^ and not as 
] far as is compatible with saving Two, 

With a free hitter, a man who does not pitch 
very far up answers best ; short leg-balls are not 
easily hit. A lobbing bowler, with the Longstop, 
and four men in all 5 on the On side, will shorten 
the innings of many a reputed fine hitter. 

A good arrangement of your men, according to 
these principles, will make eleven men do the 
work of thirteen. Some men play nervously at 
first they come in, and it is so much waste of 
your forces to lay your men far out, and equally 
a waste not to open your field as they begin to 
hit. 

We must conclude with comments on the Laws 
of the Game. 

I. The ball. Before the days of John Small a 
ball would not last a match ; the stitches would 
give way. To " call for a new ball at the begin- 
ning of each innings" is not customarv now. 

II. The bat. Here, the length of the blade of 
a bat may be any thing the player likes short of 
thirtv-eight inches. As to the width, an iron 
frame was used in the old Hambledon Club as a 
gauge, in those primitive days when the Hamp- 
shire yeomen shaped out their own bats. 

V. The popping crease must be four feet from 



256 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



the wicket, and parallel to it : unlimited in length, 
but not shorter than the bowling crease, — unli- 
mited in this sense that it shall not be said the 
runner is out because he ran round his ground. 

The bowling crease is limited ; because, other- 
wise, the batsman never could take guard ; and 
umpires should be very careful to call "No Ball," 
if the bowler bowls outside the return crease. 

The return, or crease, is not limited ; because 
it is against a batsman's interest to run wide of 
his wicket ; and a little latitude is requisite to 
prevent dangerous collision with the wicket- 
keeper. 

VI. The wickets. Secretaries should provide a 
rule, or frame, consisting of two wooden measures, 
six feet eight inches long, and four feet apart, and 
parallel. Then, with a chain of twenty-two yards, 
the relative positions of the two wickets may be 
accurately determined. 

IX. The bowler. " One foot on the ground." 
No man can deliver a ball with the foot not touch- 
ing the ground in the full swing of bowling. So, 
if the foot is over the crease, there is no doubt 
of its being on the ground. 

X. The ball must be bowled : " not thrown or 
jerked : " here there is not a word about " touching 
the side with the arm." It is left to the umpire to 
decide what is a jerk. We once heard an umpire 
asked, how could you make that out to be a jerk? 



COMMENTARY ON THE LAWS. 257 



u I say it is a jerk because it is a jerk/' was the 
sensible reply. " I know a jerk when I see one, 
and I have a right to believe my eyes, though I 
cannot define wherein a jerk consists," 

In a jerk there is a certain mechanical precision 
and curl of the ball wholly unlike fair bowling. 

A throw may be made in two ways ; one way 
with an arm nearly straight from first to last : 
this throw with straight arm requires the hand to 
be raised as high as the head, and brought down 
in a whirl or circle, the contrary foot being used 
as the pivot on which the body moves in the 
delivery. But the more common throw, under 
pretence of bowling, results from the hand being 
first bent on the fore-arm, and then power of 
delivery being gained by the sudden lash out and 
straightening of the elbow. It is a mistake to 
say that the action of the wrist makes a throw. 

"In delivery" means some action so called : if 
the mere opening of the hand is delivery of the 
ball, then the only question is the height of the 
hand the moment it opens. But if, as we think, 
"delivery" comprehends the last action of the 
arm that gives such opening of the hand effect^ 
then in no part of that action may the hand be 
above the shoulder. 

Further, in case of doubt as to fair bowling, 
the umpire is to decide against the bowler; so 

s 



258 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



the hand must be clearly not above the shoulder^ 
and the ball as clearly not thrown, nor jerked. 

Now, as to high delivery as a source of danger, 
we never yet witnessed that kind of high bowling 
that admitted of a dangerous increase of speed in 
an angry moment. The only bowling ever deemed 
dangerous, has been clearly below the shoulder, 
and savouring more of a jerk, or of an underhand 
sling, or throw, than of the round-armed or high 
delivery. Such bowlers were Mr. Osbaldestone, 
Browne of Brighton, Mr. Kirwan, Mr. Fellowes, 
and Mr. Marcon, neither of whom, except on 
smooth ground, should we wish to encounter. 

But, we have often been asked, do the law and 
the practice coincide ? Is it not a fact that few 
round-armed bowlers are clearly below the shoul- 
der ? Undoubtedly this is the fact. The better 
the bowler, as we have already explained, the 
more horizontal and the fairer his delivery. Cob- 
bett and Hillyer have eminently exemplified this 
principle ; but amongst amateurs and all but the 
most practised bowlers, allowing, of course, for 
some exceptions, the law is habitually infringed. 
In a country match a strict umpire would often cry 
"no ball" to the bowlers on both sides, cramp their 
action, produce wide balls and loose bowling, and 
eventually, not to spoil the day's sport, the two 
parties would come to a compromise. And do 
such things ever happen ? Not often. Because 



COMMENTARY ON THE LAWS. 259 



the umpires exercise a degree of discretion, and 
the law in the country is often a dead letter* 
Practically, the 10th law enables a fair umpire 
to prevent an undisguised and dangerous throw ; 
but, at the same time, it enables an unfair umpire 
to put aside some promising player who is as fair 
as his neighbours, but has not the same clique to 
support him. 

What, then, would we suggest ? The difficulty 
is in the nature of the case. To leave all to the 
umpire's discretion would, as to fair bowling, 
increase those evils of partiality, and, instead of 
an uncertain standard, we should have no standard 
at all. With fair umpires the law does as well as 
many other laws as it is ; with unfair umpires no 
form of words would mend the matter. I can 
never forget the remark of the late Mr. Ward : — - 
<tf Cricketers are a very peaceably disposed set of 
men. We play for the love of play ; the fairer 
the play the better we like it. Otherwise, so 
indefinite is the nature of round-arm bowling, 
that I never yet saw a match about which the 
discontented might not find a pretext for a 
wrangle." I am happy to add, in the year 1850, 
the M. C. C. passed a resolution to enforce the 
law of fair delivery. The violation of this law 
had, we know, become almost conventional ; this 
convention the M. C. C. have now ignored in 
the strongest terms; they have cautioned their 

s 2 



260 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



umpires, promised to support them in an inde- 
pendent judgment, and daily encourage them in 
the performance of their unpleasant duty. This 
is beginning at the right end. To expect a judge 
to do that which he believes will be the signal for 
his own dismissal is too much. 

The absurdity of having a law and breaking it, 
is obvious ; so let me insist on a newer argument, 
namely, that " to indulge a bowler in an unfair 
delivery is mistaken kindness, for the fairest hori- 
zontal delivery, like Cobbett's and Kedgate's, tends 
most to that spin, twist, quick rise, shooting and 
cutting, and that variety after the pitch in which 
effective bowling consists." A throw is very easy 
to play — as it comes down, so it bounds up : the 
batsman feels little credit due, and the spectator 
feels as little interest. The ball leaves the hand at 
once without any rotatory motion, and one ball of 
the same pitch and pace is like another. Very 
different is that life and vitality in the ball as it 
spins away from the skimming and low delivery 
of a hand like Cobbett's. The angle of reflection 
is not to be calculated by the angle of incidence 
one in ten times, with such spinning balls. That 
rotatory motion which makes a bullet glance 
instead of penetrating — that causes the slowly- 
moving top to fly off with increased speed when 
rubbing against the wall — that determines the 
angle from the cushion, and either the " following " 



COMMENT AKY ON THE LAWS. 261 



or the " draw back 99 of a billiard ball — that same 
rotation round its own axis, or the same spin, which 
a cricket ball receives in proportion as the hand is 
horizontal and the bowling lawful, determines the 
variety of every ball of a similar pace and pitch, 
at least when the ground is true. 

Whether precision and accuracy are as easily 
attained with a low as with a high delivery, is 
another question; neither should I be surprised 
nor sorry if fair delivery necessitated a wider 
wicket. A higher wicket would favour rather 
rough ground than scientific bowling ; but a wider 
wicket would do justice to that spin and twist, 
which often is the means of missing the wicket 
which with better luck might have been levelled. 
Amateurs play cricket for recreation — as a pleasure, 
not a business — and experience shows that any 
alteration which would encourage the practice of 
bowling would greatly improve cricket. In country 
matches, bowlers stipulate for four balls or six ; 
why not make matches to play with a wicket 
of eight inches, or even twelve? I had rather 
see a ball go anywhere than into the long-stop's 
hands, or into the batsman's face. So, give us fair 
bowling and a wider wicket, and let amateurs have 
the gratification of seeing the bowlers, on whom 
the science of the game and the honour of victory 
chiefly depends, no longer " given " men to play 

s 3 



262 



THE CRICKET FIELD. 



the game for them, but the fair representatives of 
their own club or their own county. 

XL " He may require the striker at the wicket 
from which he is bowling, to stand on that side of 
it which he may direct." 

Query. Can a bowler give guard for one side 
of the wicket and bowl the other? No law 
(though law XXXVI. may apply) plainly forbids 
it ; still, no gentleman would ever play with such 
a bowler another time. 

XII. " If the bowler shall toss the ball over the 
striker's head." As to wide balls, some think there 
should be a mark, making the same ball wide to a 
man of six feet and to a man of five. With good 
umpires, the law is better as it is. Still, any 
parties can agree on a mark for wide balls, if they 
please, before they begin the game. 

" Bowl it so wide." These words say nothing 
about the ball pitching more or less straight and 
turning oiF afterwards: the distance of the ball 
when it passes the batsman is the point at issue. 

XVI. Or if the "ball be held before it touch the 
ground." Query ; is it Out, if a ball is caught 
rolling back off the tent ? If the ball striking the 
tent is, by agreement, so many runs, then the ball 
is dead and a man cannot therefore be out. Other- 
wise, I should reason that the tent, being on the 
ground, is as part of the ground. By the spirit of 
the law it is not out, by the letter out But 3 to 



COMMENTARY ON THE LAWS. 263 



avoid the question, the better plan would be not 
to catch the ball, and disdain to win a match 
except by good play. 

XVIII. " Or, if in striking at the ball, he hit 
down his wicket." — 

* In striking," not in running a notch, however 
awkwardly. 

XIX. " Or, if under pretence of running, or 
otherwise." 

" Or otherwise ; " as, for instance, by calling 
out, purposely to baulk the catcher. 

XX. " Or, if the ball be struck, and he wilfully 
strike it again." 

"Wilfully strike it again." This obviously 
means, when a man blocks a ball, and afterwards 
hits it away to make runs. A man may hit a ball 
out of his wicket, or block it hard. The umpire 
is sole judge of the striker's intention, whether to 
score or to guard. 

This law was, in one memorable instance, ap- 
plied to the case of T. Warsop, a fine Nottingham 
player, who, in a match at Sheffield in 1822, as 
ae was running a notch, hit the ball to prevent it 
coming home to the wicket-keeper's hands. Clarke, 
who was thenj playing, thinks the player was 
properly given out. Certainly he deserved to be 
out ; but old laws do not always fit new offences, 
however flagrant. 

i s 4 



264 



THE CRICKET FIELD, 



XXI. « With ball in hand." The same hand. 
" Bat (in hand) ; 99 that is, not thrown. 

XXIII. " If the striker touch." This applies to 
the Nottingham case better than Law XX. ; but 
neither of these laws contemplated the exact 
offence. A ball once ran up a man's bat, and 
spun into the pocket of his jacket ; and as he 
" touched " the ball to get it out of his pocket, 
he was given out. The reply of Mr. Bell on the 
subject was, the player was out for touching the 
ball — he might have shaken it out of his pocket. 
This we mention for the curiosity of the oc- 
currence. 

XXIV. Or, if with any part of his person, &c. 
A man has been properly given out by stopping 

a ball with his arm below the elbow. Also a 
short man, who stooped to let the ball pass over 
his head; and was hit in the face, was once given 
out, as before wicket. 

"From it; 99 that is, the ball must pitch in a 
line, not from the hand, but from wicket to 
wicket. 

Much has been said on the Leg-before- Wicket 
law. 

Clarke and others say that a round-arm bowler 
can rarely hit the wicket at all with a ball not 
over-pitched, unless it pitch out of the line of the 
wickets. If this is true, a ball that has been 
pitched straight "would not have hit it; 99 and a 



COMMENTARY ON THE LAWS. 265 



ball that " would have hit it," could not have been 
fe pitched straight ; " and therefore, it is argued 
the condition " in a straight line from it (the 
wicket) " should be altered to " in a straight line 
from the bowler's hand." 
And what do we say ? 

Bring the question to an issue thus: stretch a 
thin white string from the leg-stump of the 
striker's wicket to the off-stump of the bowler's 
wicket; and let any round-armed bowler (who 
does not bowl " over the wicket ") try whether 
good length balls, which do not pitch outside 
of the said string, will hit the wicket regularly, 
that is, of their common tendency and not as " a 
break." 

My firm belief is, that this experiment (with a 
bowler and a string) will convince any one that 
the two conditions of being out leg-before-wicket 
(" straight pitch/' and " would have hit") cannot, 
except by accident, be fulfilled by an ordinary 
round-armed bowler ; and if so, the law of leg- 
I befbre-wicket should require that the ball pitch 
straight not from the bowler's wicket, but straight 
from the bowler's hand. 

Objection. " This would make the umpire's task 
too difficult: you would thus make him guess 
what was straight from the hand, but he can 
actually see what is straight from the wicket. 

Answer. This difficulty is an imaginary one. 



266 



THE CEICKET FIELD. 



An umpire must be blind indeed, not to discern 
when the ball keeps its natural line from the hand 
to the wicket, and when it pitches out of that 
line, and then abruptly turns into it. Besides, as 
the law now stands, the umpire has the same 
difficulty and the same discretion, for how can he 
decide the condition, " would have hit," without 
making allowance for the wide arm, and the 
" working " of the ball, and bringing the said 
objectionable guessing into requisition? The 
judgment now proposed for the umpire,, is no 
difficulty at all, but the judgment he has already 
to exercise is a great difficulty indeed. How 
often is a batsman convinced, that the ball that 
hit him before wicket was making so abrupt a 
turn, that it must have missed the wicket, and, 
but for that abrupt turn, would never have hit 
him at all. I do not believe that of the men given 
out " leg before wicket," one in three are deser- 
vedly out. But, often do we see a wicket saved 
by the leg and pads, when both the skill of the 
bowler and the blunder of the batsman deserved 
falling stumps. 

With these observations, I must leave my 
friends to the free exercise of their heads and 
hands, feet and faculties, patience and perseverance, 
holding myself up to them as an example in one 
respect only, that I am not too old to learn, and 



COMMENTAET ON THE LAWS. 267 



will thankfully receive any contribution, whether 
from pen or pencil, that is calculated to enrich or 
to illustrate a work, which, I am but too happy 
to acknowledge, the community of cricketers have 
adopted as their own* 



THE END. 



London: 
A. and G. A. Spottiswoode, 
New-street-Square. 



3477-2 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




042 002 274 8 



